Customer Centricity Part 1: Putting Your Customers First, Front and Center
Customer feedback (aka complaints) is nothing new. Take a look at the photo above. This item dates back to 1750 BC and is a customer grievance against a merchant named Ea-nasir.
Nanni (customer and author of the tablet) takes Ea-nasir to task for selling low quality copper as well as for the rudeness he displayed to Nanni’s messenger who was sent to get a refund. This was no light undertaking; the messenger had to travel through “enemy territory,” only to return empty handed.
Nanni was mad enough to cover the front and back of the tablet with a stinging diatribe of Ea-nasir’s behavior and shady practices. Most merchants would take the feedback and attempt to improve the deficiencies so eloquently laid bare (and lucky for us, memorialized in perpetuity thanks to the British Museum and the internet). But alas, according to archaeologists who unearthed several similarly themed tablets addressed to Ea-nasir from different copper customers, Ea-nasir did not have a customer focus. Evidence suggests he lost his core copper customers, branched out to less lucrative business ventures and his wealth declined.
So how does a defunct business in ancient Babylonia apply to the Town of Gilbert?
During EDGE classes, we talk a lot about customers — who they are, what they want and what successful companies do to keep them loyal. Think about the variety of customers we service — from businesses who establish themselves in Gilbert, tourists who enjoy the Heritage District and our residents.
Putting our customer first means more than providing excellent customer service. As the town innovates to be best in class in all lines of service, we need to maintain a customer centric focus. “What’s the difference?” you ask. Customer service is an element of customer centricity. While its aim is to provide a good experience, most of the time customer service is focused on “what to do when the customer is upset.”
Customer centricity anticipates the needs of the customer so that an organization can ensure it develops services or products around those needs. This proactive approach uses available data to understand how customers interact with us and how they use our services. We may even actively solicit opinions from our customer base, instead of relying solely on customer initiated feedback (which tends to hone in on areas of improvement).
Make no mistake, customer service is important; no one wants to do business with a jerk (Ea-Nasir, I’m looking at you). Just remember that customer service is one way of putting the customer first. We’ll demonstrate other ways we put our customers first in part two of this blog post.
The bottom line (TL;DR): Don’t be Ea-Nasir. Deliver quality services and goods and be nice to people who navigated enemy territory to do business with you. And stay tuned for part two!
