Yesterday I received a call from a woman who ran a medium-sized business, asking me: “How can I make my company customer-centric?”
My answer was simple, “Let’s talk”, as the concept is simple, but the execution depends on a series of factors, including the size of the business, the availability of customer data, the number of distribution channels used. But I advised her that the most important thing is the willingness to change, to truly manage a business based on customers insight, their behaviour towards your company’s proposition, and the willingness of the business to build a disciplined and logical way of interacting with your customers.
I started by asking a few basic questions, like: “Do you know your customers?” “How many do you have?”, “How would you split them based on how they behave towards your company?” Suddenly… there was silence!
I don’t know how this conversation will end and have not received any feedback yet. It seems that we have another case of someone managing a business based on their own perception of the market and making decisions that affect their customers based on that same perception, and then asking for help as it is not working!
So how do you manage your business?