3 things customer focused companies do to drive growth
1. They put their customers first
Companies that are truly customer focused think firstly of their customers. Their intent is always to focus on what’s best for their customers, even when it’s not in their own best interests.
There are lots of examples of this in action. Advising against a potential sale or project going ahead. Recommending another supplier or even a competitor where you’re not best placed to do the work. Proactively passing on cost savings in product or service cost to the customer. And there are many more.
The key here is the intention of the company….genuinely in the best interests of it’s customers. This mindset leads to high levels of trust being generated and with that comes loyalty, repeat business and proactive referrals to others.
2. They regularly seek and act on customer feedback
High performing teams and businesses always want to improve. They always believe that they can do better. Or as Steve Jobs often said they “never settle” (for the status quo).
One key way of improving is to get feedback and act on it. Regularly. It’s kind of obvious but so few do it. You deliver a service for a client or customer. You feel it went really well. But you don’t want to assume it did. You don’t want to take it that the client valued the same aspects of the service as you did. So you ask them. You clarify and confirm. You don’t assume.
From that conversation comes insight and innovation. And ultimately if you act on that feedback – client loyalty, repeat business and proactive referrals.
3. They have highly engaged people
Customer focused companies know the importance of having engaged, happy people in their own organisation. Highly engaged people go the extra mile for customers, they deliver much higher levels of service. They act as business owners and make proactive recommendations to improve the business and how it is run.
These companies invest significantly in carrying out and responding to people engagement surveys to focus on continually improving the levels of engagement in the organisation ( see improving employee engagement). The leaders in these companies know that engaged employees stay longer, deliver better service for customers and attract other recruits too.
