Examples of Putting Customers First in Your Business

Customer Experience

Being customer-focused means more than just saying it—it means taking action. Companies that truly prioritize their customers often see higher satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue. This approach benefits both customers and the business.

Even if you're not a big brand like TATA or Reliance, you can still prioritize your customers and see similar benefits.

In this article, we'll explore what it means to be customer-focused, its benefits, real-life examples, and tips to enhance your customer-focus approach.

What Does Customer Focus Mean?

Customer-focused (or customer-centric businesses) are designed to put the customer’s needs first. Customer-focused companies listen to their customers and act on their feedback to create a better customer experience.

These companies look for every opportunity to study customer conversations and interactions to learn more about their pain points and what they expect from your business. 🧑‍🤝‍🧑👂

Examples of customer focus actions include:

Benefits of Customer Focus

Having a customer-focused culture may seem like a selfless act for the business, but it does have some incredible benefits that positively affect profits and customer loyalty:

Painting a Vision of a Better Future

As humans, we make purchases because of the stories we choose to believe about the world. We have a vision of the future (whether conscious or unconscious), and we try to find products or services that can help us create it. 🌍🔮

If you’re selling something, customer-centric marketing is all about painting the picture of how your product will give them their better future. In this case, “better” doesn’t mean more advanced features or shiny new technology; it means how the customer will receive more enjoyment, pleasure, safety, comfort, respect, excitement, or other emotion from purchasing or using your product. To develop these campaigns, don’t simply state how your product will solve their problem, but appeal to your audience’s emotions. 🎨❤️

For example:

It’s not simply the “doing” that compels me in each of these cases; it’s the “feeling.” Consider how your customers feel while dealing with their problem or searching for solutions. 💡💭

Successful Customer-Focus Marketing Campaigns

Okay, I’ve shared a few examples of poor campaigns and provided simple illustrations of customer-centric marketing, but how have other companies used this concept in the wild? Let’s explore. 🌟🔍

Apple: iPod Campaign: 1,000 songs in your pocket

This campaign is a classic. It’s almost not even a traditional marketing campaign because it started with Steve Jobs (CEO of Apple at the time) simply making the statement on stage at one of Apple’s annual events. However, the effect was monumental. While competitors touted how many megabytes of storage their mp3 players had, Apple spoke to what mattered to the audience: how many songs the audience can listen to. iPod sales skyrocketed and the rest is history. 🎧💥

Google Photos: Loretta Campaign

Here’s a more recent example I found astounding. During the 2020 Superbowl, Google ran an ad for their cloud storage product for photos. Let’s be real – storing photos is not exciting. So, how did Google make me and many other people (nearly) tear up in only 90 seconds? They told a story – a love story. And they showed how their product didn’t simply store photos but saved memories. 📸💖

By understanding and addressing customer needs and emotions, these companies succeeded in creating impactful marketing campaigns.

How to Develop a Customer Focus

Creating a customer-focused strategy involves five key steps:

1. Get Everyone on Board:

Start by getting support from top executives to frontline staff. Coordinate feedback collection and analysis across the company to avoid fragmented approaches. Consider appointing a Chief Customer Officer to lead the strategy.🤝

2. Listen to Customers:

Understand what customers need, what influences their decisions, what outcomes they expect, and how they feel about your brand. Gather feedback from various channels like social media, surveys, chats, and customer service calls.📞📋

3. Analyze Data:

Examine customer data to identify trends and insights. Consider using machine learning tools for deeper analysis, like understanding sentiment and uncovering key issues.📊🔍

4. Take Action:

Act on insights from customer feedback, prioritizing changes aligned with business goals and values. For example, Hilton Hotels saw a 20% increase in bookings after acting on customer feedback.💼💡

5. Maintain a Customer-Focused Culture:

Make customer focus an ongoing process. Continuously collect, analyze, and act on customer insights. Provide regular training to keep customer focus top of mind for staff.🔄🎓

8 Ways to Improve Customer Focus

By following these steps and strategies, your business can enhance its customer focus and reap the associated benefits.