Customer Centricity

I have just heard that this week's economic forecast for Australia in 2007 is very positive indeed. How strange is it therefore that discussions in NSW seem to be avoiding the "R" word. The powers that be have admitted we have a rural recession but it seems to me that the "Premier State" is not far off this itself. Must be something to do with the lack of natural resources compared to the boom states of WA and Queensland ... or is it the recent end to the long surge in property prices that is at last having an effect?.

One sure sign of economic reality in NSW is in the training market. It has been nearly a year since other trainers started to make overtures about networking - a sure sign they were short of work. Now clients are asking for Customer Focus training and Negotiation training. Not something they undertake when order books are full I think! Hmm! maybe things are not as rosy in the most populous State after all.

Customer Focus is not new, nor are the techniques for achieving it, however, there are precious few companies out there who really understand it and even fewer who live by it. Yet the opportunities are enormous. If you can really understand customers and their needs, concerns and prospects, you are able to fashion a relationship with them and solutions for them that no one else can replicate. In short, you become free of competition.

I was at a seminar given by Robert Kyosaki when he said that only fat, dumb and stupid people have competition (or was there a lazy in there somewhere). He explained that people who were active thinkers and used their brains commercially were able to find a market niche that others had not yet found. One of the best is to be so customer focused that instead of being reactive to market changes, you are pre-empting or maybe even leading them. Just imagine, being so in tune with your customers that you have precisely what they need just as they discover that they want it. No hard sell, no quibbling on price, no competition to worry about.

Sounds too good to be true? If so, the chances are you do not have a true customer focus ... or to use the new buzz words, you are not Customer Centric. Of course when I worked for Jardine's we did not call it that but we created whole new markets by living it. In the 70's and 80's Insurance companies were arrogantly offering products across the board that they thought their customers wanted. One size to fit all. We understood that different groupings of clients had different insurance needs ... maybe professional cover, text books, or, in the case of doctors, not having to remember which family car was covered for medical emergencies. By understanding real needs, we carved out a significant niche that should have never been open to a mere broker.

The steps to Customer Centricity are simple, the rewards are amazing for those who have trodden the path, however, the will to make the cultural changes needed defeat all but the most determined. Having just completed our latest Manager Tool Kit module on this very topic, we have found great demand emerging even before the ink has dried. Now what was I saying about having precisely what customers need when they discover they want it? ....