Is there such thing as too much customer-centricity?
Read this if:
- You’re a product or business person unconvinced by customer-centricity
- You want to learn more about how to match business needs with customer needs
- You’re a designer looking for ammunition around human centred design
Customer-centricity has moved increasingly from the design studio to the boardroom, becoming a crucial element in successful business strategy.
Consumer trend statistics reinforce this. 68% of consumers say they will pay more for products and services from a brand known to offer high-level customer service experiences. At the same time, for 86% of consumers, good customer service turns one-time clients into long-term brand advocates.
Customers are not only becoming more vocal, but more educated in their demands. Many of the world’s most successful businesses have adopted an entirely customer-centric approach, and in the age of social media, it would be risky not to. Satisfied customers will advertise and advocate for brands, but a single dissatisfied customer could pose a major threat.
As a company whose mission is to support companies on their way to becoming a customer-obsessed business, why would we question this concept?
Despite the unquestionable benefits that come with putting your users front and centre, this cannot be the only point of focus. A single-minded focus on customer centricity can lead to poor decision-making and haphazard results.
In this article we’re going to take a look at:
- What it really means to be customer-centric
- When customer-centricity isn’t enough
- The role of design in aligning company and customer needs
- What an approach combining desirability, feasibility and viability could do for your business and customers
How customer-centric are you, really?
Despite customer-centricity being a buzzword right now, it’s surprising how few companies have embraced the practice. According to a report by the CMO, “only 14 percent of marketers say that customer centricity is a hallmark of their companies, and only 11 percent believe their customers would agree with that characterisation.”
Often, the attention paid to a user’s experience of the company, its products and services is restricted to specific departments like the marketing or UX design teams, rather than as a holistic practice by every member of every team.
We have to ask ourselves: what is true customer-centricity?
A customer-centric company has empathy written into its structure, culture and operating model. When this is the case, the cultivation of empathy for the customers’ experiences is enabled and promoted by every single employee, irrespective of their team or status.
Customer-centricity translates to fundamental changes to how customers are communicated with. Instead of creating a need for a product or service through advertising, customer-centricity aims to create products and services that users actually want and need.
When customer-centricity isn’t enough
Studies have also found that companies that focus solely on customers at the expense of other aspects of their business strategies have significantly lower overall profitability. That’s because although satisfying your customers is essential to business success, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. Here’s why:
Customers don’t always know what they want
“There’s plenty of good psychology research that shows that people are not able to accurately predict how they would behave in the future. So asking them, ‘Would you buy my product if it had these three features?’ or ‘How would you react if we changed our product this way?’ is a waste of time. They don’t know.”
Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup
The solution is always to show instead of to ask. By bringing together customer and business needs, creating a quick prototype, and showing it to relevant test customers, you’re guaranteed to get more meaningful insights without the hassle of trying to interpret random whims and desires.
A prototype, whether it’s a landing page, a video, or something clickable, will give real answers to all your most pressing customer or user questions. This allows you to see how users are interacting with a solution instead of talking about how they feel, or guessing what they want.
Business needs and customer needs don’t always match
At DAYONE, we approach this challenge by using the Design Thinking and Lean frameworks.
In our Digital Innovation as a Service — short DIaaS — offering, we combine proven ideation and strategy methods to make sure we’re solving not just for our clients, but for their customers as well. You can read more about these methods here.
How design processes can align business and customer needs
Applying a design approach and philosophy to business operating models through the adoption of design process techniques like:
- User research
- Experimentation
- Prototyping
- Testing
These practices align company and customer needs. You’ll create a clear vision as well as a tangible plan for the product and team. We’ll explain each of these concepts below.
User research
According to Interaction-Design.org, “User research is the methodic study of target users — including their needs and pain points — so designers have the sharpest possible insights to work with to make the best designs. User researchers use various methods to expose problems and design opportunities, and find crucial information to use in their design process.”
User research also helps organisations to avoid making assumptions about users that could lead to critical mistakes. User research can take the form of interviews, observational studies, qualitative and quantitative research, usability testing, and more.
Experimentation
UserFocus.co.uk describes experimentation as, “A proven scientific procedure that is used to test a hypothesis.”
At the start of the experimentation phase, UX researchers will typically select a data point from which they can create their assumption. Eg: “We believe if we do A, then B will happen. We will know if this is true if we see an increase in the C metric.”
Experimentation is an iterative process which enables teams to roll out new features and incremental changes effectively by running tests on a section of the user base, and optimising results.
Prototyping
Interaction-Design.org refers to prototyping as, “An experimental process where design teams implement ideas into tangible forms from paper to digital. Teams build prototypes of varying degrees of fidelity to capture design concepts and test on users.”
Prototypes are an opportunity for refining and validating designs, assessing the viability of ideas and aligning these concepts with the brand, the business and the user’s goals.
Testing
Testing, also known as Usability Testing or User Testing, typically involves UX researchers observing users while they interact with a product or system. The users might be asked to complete tasks or perform actions in different scenarios.
Userpeek.com uses this definition: “User testing is the process of collecting qualitative and quantitative data from the test user, whilst the user is subject to all aspects of a service or product. Qualitative or quantitative data is collected from the users’ test sessions to improve UX.”
Testing is ideal for finding out what the user’s experience of the product is and helping the UX team identify changes that might improve it.
Desirability, Feasibility and Viability
The Lean Startup framework is not just for startups. It contains a mindset and framework for understanding the stability and sustainability of any product or business idea.
A simple way to start is to scrutinise your product and business plan by posing questions that focus on each element of the approach. It might look something like this:
Desirability:
- Does the customer want it?
- Are we solving a real problem for them?
- Is this problem being serviced by competitors? What makes us different?
- Does it make sense to them?
Feasibility:
- Do we have the correct team profile to build this product?
- Does this venture align with our core strengths as a business?
- Is it technically possible?
Viability:
- Is this product or service financially sustainable and profitable?
- Does it also align with our vision, mission and strategic objectives?
- What can we do to find and activate our most profitable customers on a continuing basis?
So, what do we think about this?
At some point, research becomes procrastination.
If organisations want to reap the benefits of digital technology, there’s a fine balance to strike between opening up channels of conversation with customers and taking action.
We are customer obsessed. That means that we talk to customers at the right points in the product journey, and then push forward when the time is right.
Don’t be crippled by customer research. Customers won’t give you answers, only direction.
How customer-obsessed is your company? Does this obsession ever hold you back? We’d love to hear your experiences and feedback in the comments below.
