That Your Organization Isn’t as

16 SIGNS

Customer Centricas You Think

WHAT IS CUSTOMER CENTRICITY? Intentionally putting the

customer at the center of everything you do as an

organization

An all-encompassing philosophy that combines culture and targeted

skill sets to create the best customer experience possible

An organization that is truly customer centric consistently considers the viewpoint of the customer when

making decisions, creating processes, defining behavior expectations

and developing future strategies

A Look from the Outside

CUSTOMER CENTRICITY WARNING SIGNS

If any of the following scenarios sound familiar, it might be time to rethink your approach to the customer experience.

Every company can expect the occasional poor review, but if your overall ratings are dropping and the frequency of bad reviews increases, you have an obvious problem with customer satisfaction.

1BAD ONLINE REVIEWS

“Poor customer service...”

“Stay away!”

BAD!

2FEWER REFERRALSFROM CLIENTS

Been awhile? You might want to think about why.

When was the last time you heard...

“My friend told me about your product/service, and I just had to try it”?

3DECREASINGNPS RESULTS

A high score = your organization has loyal enthusiasts who are likely to provide referrals.

An intermediate score = indicates customer satisfaction but not a lot of enthusiasm.

An low score = unhappy customers who are likely to damage your brand.

When your NPS starts to drop, it’s time to take action.

4CUSTOMER SATISFACTIONSCORES DECREASING

If you perform customer surveys to gauge satisfaction rates, and you see a noticeable decline, it’s time to do something about it.

That’s why you do those types of surveys, right?

A+c-

5CLIENTS AVOIDINGYOUR CALLS

Nothing screams dissatisfaction like a client ignoring your calls or actively avoiding you.

Losing an existing customer to the competition not only stings, but it’s also a canary in the coal mine. Ignore this alarm and you can expect worse things to come.

6LONGTIME CLIENTS CHOOSEA COMPETITOR

7SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS AREONLY MENTIONED WITHCOMPLAINTS

If every Facebook or Twitter mention that comes your way is a customer complaining about your product or service, it’s time to take a closer look at your customer interactions.

The customer service was terrible...

We are never coming back here...

If you get complaints before an individual even becomes a customer, your organization is in dire need of an overhaul when it comes to customer centricity.

8EVEN PROSPECTS ARECOMPLAININGABOUT SERVICE

9DIFFERENT CUSTOMERSASK THE SAME QUESTION

ALL THE TIMEIf your customer service representatives find themselves answering the same questions all the time, it’s a sign that you aren’t giving customers what they need.

Now... Look Inside

SIGNSare not so obvious, but that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pay attention to them. Customer centricity starts inside the organization, so it’s important to evaluate your internal processes and behaviors.

SOME INTERNAL WARNING

Individual sales are great, but repeat sales are what keep many businesses going. If you have goals for sales but not goals for customer retention, it’s an indicator that you are not focusing enough on your existing customers.

10YOU HAVE METRICS ANDGOALS FOR SALESBUT NOT RETENTION

11LEADERSHIPUSES THE TERM “COST CENTER” TO REFER TOSERVICE AND SUPPORT

Negative terminology like “cost center” demonstrates that leadership doesn’t put enough value on serving and supporting customers. This negative language trickles down to the individuals performing the work as well.

COSTCENTER

12EMPLOYEESARE FLEEING YOUR ORGANIZATION

Nobody wants to stay on a sinking ship. When employees see warning signs like customers going to competitors or bad online reviews, they start to look for work at places with a more positive outlook.

13 YOUR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS

SPEED-FOCUSEDNOT QUALITY-FOCUSED

Customer support should be about quality and not quantity. Consumer research has shown that customers are more concerned about the level of engagement they feel rather than speed of service. When it comes to customer service, faster is not always better.

14EVIDENCEOF SILOS

When departments don’t communicate effectively, the customer experience can get lost in the shuffle. When you recognize multiple teams going down different paths, step back and consider how this might impact the customer experience.

15BREAKDOWNOF CUSTOMER PROCESSES

If your carefully designed customer processes stop working, you must find out why. It could be because individuals in the organization are not considering the customer experience in everything they do.

16 CHANGES TO THE

ORGANIZATIONOR FUNCTIONAL RESOURCES

Is it harder to serve customers because access to resources has become more limited? Although they might be framed as cost-saving measures, changes to the organization that negatively impact the customer experience indicate that your organization is not as customer centric as you think it is.

NEXT STEPS

Create a strategy for becoming a customer centric organization. Your plan should include communication from leadership, corporate training to align individuals with the necessary skills, a timeline for execution, and metrics that allow you to measure progress.

1 MAKE APLAN

You can’t expect change to happen without action. After you have created a strategy, execute it and stick to your timeline. Schedule corporate training events, add customer centricity training to the new-hire onboarding process, and pay attention to your metrics.

2 EXECUTETHE PLAN

Encourage retention by scheduling refresher courses, discuss how customer centricity skills are being applied in the workplace, and celebrate successes.

3 SUSTAIN THETRAINING

Eagle’s Flight has been helping companies become more customer centric for decades. Download our free Guide to Building a Customer Centric Organization to learn more about what you can do to ensure that the customer always comes first.

WORK WITH THEEXPERTS

CHANGING BEHAVIOR TO IMPROVE PERFORMANCE