While the pandemic has disrupted the traditional ways that most businesses operate, it has opened the door to a shift in customer interactions. Instead of relying on the traditional mediums we've enjoyed in the past, businesses are forced to pivot their marketing strategies in order to chase after customer's attention. This chase has led to a rapid increase of interactions between businesses and consumers that takes place somewhere out on a cloud in the middle of WiFi land.

There is little doubt that as the new normal pushes us to engage within a digital platform, a winning strategy will depend upon delivering high quality customer experiences in ways that businesses may or may not be familiar with. The most successful businesses will be able to translate this experience into the digital world without diluting its interactions with customers.

While a superb level of customer service doesn't immediately convert to the bottom line, it does provide us with something that is potentially much more valuable in the long run. Sticky Customers. If a customer feels an affiliation or identifies with your business/brand, then they are much more likely to become a repeat customer.

Seek to understand consumer perspective

A business must blend elements of consumer perspective into their organizational culture at every level to truly become a customer-centric company. Many businesses make the mistake of failing to consider what their customers are thinking or feeling. If they do, then it's highly unlikely that they've prescribed an actionable solution to take advantage of the opportunity. With the introduction of social media, business owners have a living encyclopedia of data on their customers that updates by the day. Savvy marketers will be able to utilize the information provided by the customers to reduce the gap between value that the business thinks provides and the value that customers feel after an interaction.

Empower staff to do what is most beneficial for the customer

A large part of becoming a customer-centric company is by focusing on cultivating long term relationships rather than short term results. We've all heard the phrase "People over profits" but what does it mean? To value one persons beliefs or perspective over the profit of your company seems like bad business advice on the surface, but I would argue that they're one in the same. The opportunity to show a customer that your business is willing to go above and beyond their expectations, could pay for itself 10x in the future. In order to accomplish this, you must empower your employees to perform whatever tasks necessary (even if it means taking a loss in the short term) to satisfy a customer.

Establish a family-first culture

It's no secret that happiness is contagious, which is why most customer-centric businesses focus on cultivating a family-first culture amongst the team. By building a relationship of trust with its employees, a company leads by example. Additionally, by retaining employees, a company can drive culture even further. In a family-first culture, employees must feel empowered to deliver value in ways that transcends benchmarks and KPIs. Once an organization starts to understand the customers perspective, they can empower their employees to deliver the highest quality of customer service within a family-first culture.

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