How to build a customer-centered organization to gain competitive advantage

Company leaders have realised that "getting closer to the customer" is crucial to growth. Both business buyers and consumers have more choices than ever before, empowered by online and mobile channels that provide more ways to buy, give and get recommendations, and talk back to companies. Today's customer won't hesitate to walk away from an established company relationship that doesn't meet their needs. This holds true for nearly all industries today, and is no longer limited to those serving consumers.

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Today's businesses are shifting their focus from inside, to outside by focusing on their customers.

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What does it mean to be a customer centric organization?

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  • Building a customer-centered organization
    Excellence in marketing, sales, service and operations can deliver differentiated, brand-defining customer experience that grows the bottom line. Build it all around your customer.

    63%
    of CEOs see rallying their organizations around the ‘customer’ in 2013 as one of the top three investment priorities

  • Turning digital change into profitable growth
    Today's companies are finding the future at the intersection of social business, mobile technology, and customer engagement. Turn digital progress into profitable growth.

    53%
    of US CEOs say social media users influence their business strategy

  • Transforming customer data into market insight
    Alignment between internal operating effectiveness and external customer experience is possible. Close the results gap with data-driven customer insights that lead to results.

    62%
    of IT and business executives believe that Big Data has significant potential to create business advantage

  • Creating the next generation of sales effectiveness
    The very nature of sales is changing, redefining what it means to build and run an agile sales and service organization. Create the future of sales and service today.

    Over 25%+
    of US CEOs indicate that implementing new technology is a top-three investment priority in the coming year

  • Measuring the return on customer investment
    Investments in customer experience and product innovation are made for the purpose of delivering better financial results. Hold your investments accountable.

    Nearly 50%
    of US CEOs worry shifts in consumer spending and behaviors threaten their companies’ growth prospects

Nine out of ten US CEOs say they are strengthening their customer and client engagement programmes

Customers first

Differentiated customer experiences build brand, market share and competitive advantage. They also yield analytical insight into buying behaviour that can inform closed-loop marketing strategies, and work best when functional boundaries between marketing, sales and technology are eliminated. This is best achieved by an "outside in" approach that draws technology, market trends and customer needs to the center of how you do business.

See it their way

Today, the customer is king. And new buying behaviour demands engaging, customer-centered experiences sustained by properly aligned sales and support channels. Discover how social media, mobile apps and digital marketing can build next-generation sales. Create multi-channel brand messaging strategies in order to balance marketing goals and customer demand. Discover how behavioural economics can influence your customer experience strategy now—and over the long-term—by putting the customer first.

Eight-two percent of US CEOs are strengthening engagement programs with social media users

Chart: US CEOs and social media


Explore the US CEO Survey findings

Digital revolution

Social media, smartphones, tablets and the cloud now set the standard for how business is done. Customers expect more. They want evolving digital experiences and seamless interactions—with any brand—across multiple platforms and channels: integrated experiences, accessible anywhere. And, in addition to offering new ways to engage customers, earn their loyalty and win market share, the social web can add dimension to the entire product life cycle.

Join the conversation

Attracting today's mobile, social customer requires standardized, configurable technology platforms that are available firm wide. A systematic approach to social listening works best. By offering unique customer engagement programs and compelling mobile content while improving traditional revenue models, businesses can virtually gauge the effectiveness of digital media spending in real time. But to join the social conversation you must understand that social business is more than technology. It's a culture.

Turning customers into advocates

Never before has there been such a powerful platform for learning about customers—what they value, how they really think, what they'll pay for, etc.—in a forum that is largely free of commercial influence. Social networks are an effective tool for turning ordinary customers into extraordinary advocates and agents of influence. While social tools create new channels to engage customer and build brand loyalty, that may just be the tip of the iceberg. The real value of social may be in its ability to add new dimensions to the entire product life cycle.

The CFO can marshal the organisation around hard metrics like acquisition costs, retention and loyalty metrics

Data speaks volumes

Earning—and deepening—customer loyalty is a challenge, even for established brands. But big data, drawn from a variety of sources both inside and outside the firm, can yield valuable insight into customer behaviour. Though often unstructured and complex, when data is properly sorted, filtered and interpreted it can inform media and sales investments and identify customers with above-average lifetime profitability potential.

Social listening

By improving data management, streamlining IT resources and closing information gaps, businesses can capture the information they need in order to market the right products to the right customers. By using tools like PwC's proprietary Experience Radar to enhance experience design coupled with behavioural economics to deduce customer choice, they can also make more accurate demand forecasts and gain analytical insight about market segmentation. When properly understood, today's mobile, social customer will point the way to a competitive advantage.

More than a quarter of US CEOs indicate that implementing new technology is a top-three investment priority in the coming year

Changing sales

New relationships, business models and technologies are transforming how sales relate to customers and internal stakeholders alike. In order to unlock the full potential of sales resources, these changes require a structured, data-driven framework that makes it easier to identify and close information gaps, quantify growth potential and prioritize solutions. Streamlined processes can yield measurable results in revenue growth, improved sales productivity, lower sales costs and improved customer loyalty.

Sales solutions for the bottom line

Sales effectiveness requires consistency of product, content and data. When it comes to influencing customer decision-making, the B2B online channel has risen to match the strategic value of the direct sales force. Stay ahead of market peers. Organize your sales functions, channel compliance and people to better meet customer demand. Use technology such as CRM, big data, automation, digital commerce and social media to support sales goals. Align your cost of selling to your business model and take better control of your margins.

Nearly half of US CEOs worry shifts in consumer spending and behaviors threaten their companies’ growth prospects.

Seeing sales and marketing as investments, rather than costs

Brand health is usually built by delivering on investments in superior customer experiences. But the sales and marketing costs are usually accounted for as expenses, rather than investments. This can make it difficult to gauge sales and marketing's impact on the bottom line. Integrating consumer behavioural changes, organizational productivity and financial-performance measures—as well as clarifying how shareholders benefit from such initiatives—can make it easier to determine the effectiveness of customer investments.

Measure twice, pay once

Strong brands and high customer-experience measures can boost profits and shareholder value. And in order to improve efforts to bolster market reputation and customer loyalty, firms must solicit greater CFO involvement in customer experience decision-making and analysis. Equally important is the need to foster communication between sales, marketing and customer-care leaders, evaluate digital marketing and social CRM efforts and improve media and trade spend. Whether you are appraising customer-experience designs or seeking new product strategies, better customer satisfaction scores, or more profitable customer loyalty programs, knowing the results of your efforts is paramount to their success.

Contacts
Tom Puthiyamadam
Principal, Products & Services Industries
Tel: +1 (646) 471 1490
Paul D'Alessandro
Principal, Health Industries
Tel: +1 (312) 298 6810
Dean Nicolacakis
Principal, Financial Services Industries
Tel: +1 (415) 498 7075
Karen Wilson
Principal, Washington Federal Practice
Tel: +1 (703) 610 7546

Experience Radar 2013

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US Retail Grocery

Experience Radar 2013

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US Retail Banking

Experience Radar 2013

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Lessons from the U.S. Enterprise Software industry


2013 US CEO Survey

Creating Value in Uncertain times

Outlook for US business

Bob Moritz, US Chairman and Senior Partner, discusses the strengthening of US fundamentals.

 

Explore the 2013 US CEO Survey findings

 

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