Company culture is one of the most vital aspects that contribute to why employees stay committed to their jobs and in turn, why the loyalty of customers is maintained. Now, these concepts might sound irrelevant to each other, but the two are actually interconnected.
As Lumoa mentioned in their Customer Experience Blog, the success of a customer experience improvement program often boils down to how well the company can empower employees across the organization, stressing that the two concepts are on par with each other.
Improving your company’s culture and promoting growth might sound tedious and overwhelming, but here are ways that could help make you closer to the goal:
- Make Dedication and Commitment a Team Effort
According to Hubspot, being customer-centric begins with the company’s culture. If your goal is to become customer-centric, then you must be willing to make a company-wide commitment to your customer’s success.
It is one thing for the CEO to know what the company’s goals are, but having the rest of the company commit to it is an entirely different ball game. It is not enough that the head of the company is committed to a goal. For a company to thrive, team effort must be mobilized.
The same set of goals that the CEO has must be deeply rooted in the minds of each employee to ensure that each member of the company embodies a similar mindset and everyone is moving towards the same direction.
Collaborated team effort guarantees more efficient actions and better results.
- Maintain Transparency and Accountability Within The Company
Now, you may think that numbers and statistics are not appealing to employees or it might bore them if it’s discussed. But these numbers are actually crucial when it comes to building a customer-centric culture.
Making the data transparent to the employees can help increase their dedication to improvement and can make giving the customers proper service a more exciting activity, especially with the knowledge that the quality of their performance could result in better statistics for the company.
As humans, we tend to act in terms of feedback. If we hear from other people that they are satisfied with our work, we press on with what we’re doing and even aim to be better. Same goes when we hear that we did something wrong, we make sure to act on it to get improved feedback the next time.
- Boost Employee Morale
Celebrating your employees’ successes, no matter how small, can make them feel more enticed in serving the customers better. It can build a mindset that they are directly involved in the company’s growth, which is actually a fact. Making employees feel valued can benefit the company in more ways than one.
Celebrating even the tiniest of praises from customers as if it’s a big win can give your employees a clear idea of how important it is to satisfy your clients and a better grasp of which direction they must be working towards and what goals they should attain for the company.
As James Clear has mentioned in his book, ‘Atomic Habits’, “People who are talented in a particular area tend to be more competent at that task and are then praised for doing a good job. They stay energized because they are making progress where others have failed, and because they get rewarded with better pay and bigger opportunities, which not only makes them happier but also propels them to produce even higher-quality work. It’s a virtuous cycle.” This supports the notion that happier employees result in happier customers. Acknowledging positive feedback and celebrating it as a win can be a good way to keep employee morale high.
- Build a Personal Relationship With Your Clients
One of the best customer service experiences we’ve all had are the ones that left us smiling and feeling satisfied, even though our initial purpose was to complain about a company’s backlog. All it takes is a friendly tone and a pleasant greeting and we already feel more connected to the person on the other line, making us feel at ease in voicing out our thoughts and opinions on the matter at hand.
Talking to clients shouldn’t purely be business. They should be seen as family and should be treated as one. Engaging with them with a more genuine and welcoming approach can change the course of the entire conversation, resulting in a better customer experience and positive feedback.
- Pay Attention to The Customers’ Feedback
As most companies do, they take advantage of the data and patterns left by their customers in order to cater to their needs more efficiently. DesignHill emphasizes the importance of taking time to listen to your clients, as one way or another, they are offering you valuable insights and telling you what they need from you. With this, it is important to always pay attention, no matter how irrelevant the feedback might sound.
In one of Forbes’ articles, they also stressed on the importance of having customers who are willing to give feedback about your product or service. They consider these kinds of customers as a potential gold mine for your company and its growth. The important part is knowing when to listen to the customers and when and how to use their feedback to help your company become better.
One insight may look dispensable at first, but collectively, these insights can make a huge difference in the direction of your company in terms of improvement. Taking into consideration the insights shared by your clients when developing a product or service is important because what you want is to be a company that the people need and not what you think they need.
- Reward Your Clients’ Loyalty
Have you ever continuously transact with a company or kept on using an application because they are giving you rewards for reaching specific tiers? May it be a rebate or a small discount, it makes us feel valued and makes us want to participate more.
Rewarding your most loyal customers, no matter how small, will motivate them to continue transacting with your company. Making your clients feel valued gives them more reason to be involved and to call out your company should you need to make further improvements, which in turn, could be beneficial to both parties when done right.
It is important to invest in these types of customers because, more often than not, they are the ones who have transacted with you the most and they know your product or services best, making them an effective tool you can utilize in improving your company’s quality of service.
As concluded by DesignHill in one of their blogs on business branding, customer-centric companies have a stronger chance of becoming recognized brands. Nowadays, companies thrive because they know their customers well and they listen to what they need. Making customer experience a priority is one of the best ways to succeed in the digital age.
Not only does veering towards a customer-centric culture makes you know your clients better, but it also increases their engagement and loyalty. Being successful in adopting this business model can also result in acquiring new customers in the long run.
If you are now ready to embark on your company’s journey to growth and better company culture, head to our Corporate Labs and let us help you ensure your success in achieving your business goals!
