How to become a customer-centric organization

Customer centricity has become more than just a buzzword in the business world. Organizations that have shifted their focus from only improving products to meeting customer needs first have experienced an 80% increase in revenue.

Here we highlight the best practices that helped us become a customer-centric organization, and how you can make similar changes, too.

The Technology and Services Industry Association (TSIA) recently coined the term outcome selling, which states that enterprise technology sales are centered around helping customers achieve their priority business outcomes first, and then proving how your solution contributes to achieving these outcomes.

Why is outcome selling a priority for organizations that want to become customer-centric?

Recent research shows that 73% of customers agree that customer experience helps drive their buying decision. The same study highlights that 70% of customers rate helpful employees and friendly service as aspects that matter most when choosing a brand.

In other words, customer expectations have changed – and brands that offer expertise and guidance alongside a high-quality product or solution gain a competitive advantage.

In fact, 70% of companies have customer success managers (CSMs) engage with the customer either before or immediately after contract close. This means the CSM is already connected to the customer and goes through the implementation journey as an active participant.

Becoming a customer-centric organization isn’t easy but is worth it in the long run. Here are a few tried-and-true ways to center your business around your customers to increase loyalty and retention.

It’s important to know where your customers are on their journey. Then, you can tailor your strategy to ensure they receive the information and support they need to move into the next stage. This will also help you identify who needs to be present and when – for example, do you need a salesperson, consultant, or implementation manager to help customers with onboarding?

At Infobip, we have different onboarding and launch packages that adapt to your needs as a part of our Professional Services. We also offer CX Consultancy services that help us identify your pain points before using our solutions and then explain how our technology can help you overcome these challenges. Once you onboard, our Support and Customer Success teams work with you to resolve issues and get the most out of our solutions to achieve your business goals.

In a recent survey, 27% of respondents reported ˝lack of effectiveness˝ as their number one frustration with customer service – and 12% rated ˝lack of speed˝ as their main frustration.

To keep customers happy, it’s important to have an internal structure that minimizes the number of touchpoints they must go through to receive proper support. This means having customer support teams identify an efficient and effective workflow that reduces back-and-forth transfers, long wait times, and lack of information for your customers.

We recently moved from a seven-team to a three-team customer services structure to make it easier for you to reach the right people. We’ve also grown our partner portfolio and have equipped them to provide the same level of world-class service – so you are not limited to only one solution provider.

Being present on the right channels is of utmost importance when it comes to delivering a friction-free experience. A Microsoft study shows that 66% of consumers have used at least three different communication channels to contact customer service.

To avoid frustration, it’s important to have an omnichannel communication strategy and the right tools to help you continue the conversation on whichever channel your customers prefer.

Our experts work with you to teach you communication best practices and show you use cases that can improve your reach and messaging automation. We recently helped one of the top banking groups in Europe define their communication objectives, identify their key target customer segments, and then populated a customer journey map to show how they could achieve these key results with our technology.

Alongside constantly improving our solutions, we’ve set up a scalable organizational framework made up of Professional Services, Customer Support, and Customer Success to improve your customer service experience.

Overall, our shift in mindset across the organization has led each department and team to work towards fueling our customers’ success first, and tailoring our product and solutions to solve their pain points. From product development to marketing and sales, and our C-level executives, we know we’ll deliver high-quality products, solutions, and services when we start with the customer in mind.

If you’re interested in our solutions and aren’t sure where to start – don’t worry, we’re here to help. You can contact us or book a demo and one of our experts will guide you through the process. Our customers’ success is our success – let’s build a world of connections, together.