Customer Centricity: The Competitive Advantage

Abstract

Customer centricity is essential for firms wanting to improve and increase customer loyalty, customer satisfaction, customer advocacy, and customer lifetime value. Customer Centricity is a multifaceted process that involves obtaining genuine insights into the unmet wants & needs of customer~, and their frustrations with a product or service. Using these insights, firms must develop products & services, and value propositions based upon the customers wants, needs, and frustrations. Finally, companies must deliver superior customer experiences at all touch points and moments of truth. It is also of great importance that the customer insights come from the most valuable customers and value propositions are targeted at the most valuable segment or segments. Customer centric companies are the ones who will survive the poor economic times and come out stronger than the competition when the economy turns around. The market is flooded with competition and it is and has always been survival of the fittest. Customer 'centricity is the competitive advantage that separates firms in the long run. This paper will explain customer centricity and break down and explain each facet of the process as well as its importance. Real world examples will be shown to help reveal how customer centric companies implement their ideas in unique settings. Also, connections from my summer internship will be used to draw parallels into my experience and how I used customer centric marketing concepts as marketing and business development intern at High Performance Training.