You don’t need to go to business school to know that happy customers makes a happy business. When your clients are satisfied with your product and customer service, they will remain loyal and bring in new buyers as recommendations. The key to a successful business is satisfied customers.

The logic is simple enough, yet so many companies seem to get it wrong. In their pursuit of top line revenues and bottom line profit, companies shift focus from satisfying customers to achieving economic efficiency. They concentrate on making a profit in the most efficient way possible, losing the essence of what the customer really wants, fixating on delivering a product or service. Focusing more on outputs than outcomes is a big issue in businesses, causing them to underperform.

Customer focused companies excel in customer service

A customer focused company is oriented towards keeping their customers happy and satisfied. The needs and wants of a customer take precedence in the corporate strategy and major business processes. They put a lot of effort into creating lasting relationships with their customers.

Companies that excel at customer service are distinguished by their dedication to forming enduring relationships. They break barriers to let their clients know that the company takes an active interest in their satisfaction.

They work hard through the whole process not just for the end result, but for every moment of it. Making sure that their network of relationships is working well is important to customer-focused companies.

Customer Service 101 – Finding out what the customer wants

It is so easy for companies to lose focus of their customers. Because if they are not profitable, they cannot exist in the long term. As a result, they commonly focus on top line revenues and bottom line profit, rather than customer needs. 

To find out what the customer really wants, we need to go back to the basics and define clearly what they are looking for and buying from us. You need to lose the inside-out lens, where you just continue doing what you do, and expect people to love and buy your products and/or services as they are.  Take a look through the outside-in lens, where you offer customers what THEY WANT from you in terms of benefits, outcomes and the total experience.

Good customer service can easily get compromised when companies take quick fixes in efficiency cuts. At the cost of minimizing expenses and increasing profits, you can quickly lose customers.Given how harmful dissatisfied customers can be to your reputation and your business, this can be very costly.  

How to become more customer focused beyond customer service

Customer-focused companies go beyond just having excellent customer service. They look for different ways to keep potential consumers satisfied throughout the buying process, and even afterward. Whether or not they make a purchase, customer-focused companies continue to stay in touch with interested buyers.

A map of every point of contact between the organization and customer can help the company plan in advance on how best to approach each situation. Managers can train and coach employees to make every experience with the customer a happy one, which is positively memorable.

In every business, there is usually one or two-star employees who the customers love completely. The “employee of the month” who go the extra mile to provide great customer service. Managers shouldn’t depend on their heroes to carry the business on their shoulders, but rather rely on a consistent attitude through a network of relationships from beginning to end.

Set the example. The more stories your employees can share with each other about what you have done or decisions you made to put the customer before you or your business will have more of an impact than any manual or training.  Those are the stories that become legends in a company and are passed on for years. It is surprising how quickly a culture can change or go viral when the leadership walk, talk and breath it.

Never discount the value of interacting with your employees, regardless of how busy you are. Regular discussions help both the managers and the sales teams. The company discovers what’s working for them and what’s not, and also become aware of issues outside the office. Talking about internal relationships lets employees know what to give, what to expect and how to make it better. Finally, avoid complacency.  Just when you think things are going great, know that they can always be better. All it takes is a couple of interactions with customers or employees to know you can do more to make an impact.