How to Move to a Powerful Customer First Strategy in 2024

In 2024, claiming to be "customer-centric" is table stakes. But actually executing on that promise is another story entirely. As customer expectations rise at an exponential rate, companies face a stark choice: either invest in a genuine, comprehensive customer first strategy, or risk obsolescence at the hands of competitors who do.

Consider these startling statistics:

• 89% of companies now expect to compete primarily on the basis of customer experience (CX), up from just 36% in 2010.^1
• 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience.^2
• Customers are willing to pay a price premium of up to 13% (and as high as 18%) for luxury and indulgence services, simply by receiving a great customer experience.^3
• 73% of companies with "above average" customer experience maturity perform better financially than their competitors.^4

The writing is on the wall: customer experience is the battleground on which business success will be won or lost. And a halfhearted approach simply won‘t cut it.

So what does it really mean to be customer first? And how can you infuse that ethos into every fiber of your organization? Let‘s dive in.

Defining Customer First

At its core, customer first is about reorienting your entire company around delivering maximum value to your customers. It‘s not just about having a great product or addressing customer service complaints. It‘s about proactively shaping your strategy, your processes, your culture, and your technology around the customer‘s needs and desires.

As Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, arguably the archetype of customer-centricity, explained: "The most important single thing is to focus obsessively on the customer. Our goal is to be earth‘s most customer-centric company."^5

This requires a fundamental mindset shift from "What‘s best for our bottom line?" to "What‘s best for our customers?". And the irony is that by relentlessly focusing on the latter, you‘re far more likely to achieve the former.

The proof is in the pudding. According to Forrester, experience-driven businesses grew revenue 1.7x faster and increased customer lifetime value 2.3x more than other companies in the past year.^6

Infusing Customer-Centricity Into Your DNA

Achieving true customer-centricity isn‘t just a matter of implementing the right tactics. It requires embedding that ethos into the very DNA of your organization. Every team, every individual, every decision should be oriented around the north star of customer value.

Some key strategies for cultivating a customer-obsessed culture:

Secure Unconditional Executive Buy-In

Customer-centricity has to start at the top. If your C-suite isn‘t 110% committed to putting customers first, any attempts at a customer first transformation will be short-lived.

The CEO and executive team need to relentlessly beat the drum on the importance of CX, model customer-centric behaviors themselves, and put their money where their mouth is in terms of investments and resource allocation.

Democratize Customer Insights

To make customer-informed decisions, employees need easy access to customer insights. That means breaking down data silos and ensuring a steady flow of fresh, reliable Voice of Customer data across the organization.

Invest in customer intelligence tools that can automatically surface relevant insights to the right people at the right time. Share customer feedback and stories widely in company communications. Immerse employees in the customer‘s world through ride-alongs, support ticket reviews, and customer journey mapping exercises.

Empower Employees to Act on CX

It‘s not enough for employees just to have customer empathy. They need to be equipped and empowered to actually do something about it.

Grant frontline staff more autonomy to resolve customer issues on the spot, without excessive red tape. Build CX objectives into performance reviews and compensation models. Celebrate and elevate employees who go above and beyond for customers.

Infuse CX Into Every Function

While CX may be owned by marketing, service, or success, it‘s not solely their responsibility. Every function, from product to finance to HR, has a critical role to play.

For example:

• Product should incorporate customer feedback into the roadmap, conduct extensive user testing, and measure success based on customer outcomes, not just features shipped.
• HR should screen for customer orientation in hiring, provide CX training during onboarding, and include CX metrics in performance reviews.
• Finance should factor CX into budgeting decisions and ROI calculations, and tie executive compensation to customer metrics like NPS or CSAT.

The most customer-centric companies have CX represented in the C-suite, whether through a Chief Customer Officer or a CX committee with cross-functional membership.

Continuously Raising the CX Bar

Customer expectations are a moving target. What delights today becomes table stakes tomorrow. Continuous CX innovation is critical for staying ahead of rising demands and competitive pressures.

Some key focus areas:

Personalization At Scale

Customers increasingly expect experiences to be tailored to their unique needs and preferences. But delivering personalization at scale requires robust data, AI/ML capabilities, and content management systems.

Invest in a unified customer data platform that can stitch together data across touchpoints to enable real-time personalization. Leverage AI to surface relevant product recommendations, content suggestions, and proactive support. Build content and creative assets that can be dynamically adapted to different segments.

Frictionless Omnichannel Journeys

Customers don‘t think in channels, and neither should you. They expect consistent, seamless experiences across web, mobile, email, social, in-store, etc.

Map out end-to-end customer journeys to identify gaps and points of friction. Ensure data flows smoothly across systems to enable cross-channel consistency. Empower customers to engage on their preferred channel but pivot smoothly to others as needed.

Proactive, Predictive Engagement

The best experiences are those that anticipate customer needs before they even arise. Leverage predictive analytics and real-time signals to engage proactively at key moments.

Some examples:

• Detecting that a customer is at risk of churning and proactively reaching out with a retention offer
• Noticing that a customer has repeatedly searched for a product and proactively providing personalized recommendations
• Sensing that a customer is getting frustrated in their journey and proactively offering live support

Making It Easy To Do Business

Ultimately, customers just want effortless experiences that help them achieve their goals with minimum friction. Look for opportunities to remove hurdles, streamline processes, and boost convenience at every touchpoint.

Some low-hanging fruit:

• Implement a hassle-free returns policy
• Offer self-service options for common tasks
• Provide instant access to live support
• Streamline the checkout process
• Offer flexible payment and financing options

The easier you make it for customers to do business with you, the more likely they are to keep coming back.

Aligning Employee and Customer Experience

Here‘s an inconvenient truth: you can‘t consistently deliver great customer experiences with unhappy, disengaged employees. The way you treat your employees is how they will treat your customers. That‘s why EX and CX are two sides of the same coin.

Consider these sobering statistics:

• Companies with highly engaged employees outperform their competitors by 147%.^7
• 79% of employees at companies with above average CX are highly engaged in their jobs, compared to 49% of employees at companies with average or below average CX scores.^8
• Actively disengaged employees cost U.S. companies up to $550 billion a year.^9

Aligning EX and CX starts with hiring employees with the right mindsets and skills, but it doesn‘t end there. You need to continuously invest in your people, equipping them with the tools, training, and support to excel in their roles.

Some proven EX strategies that directly impact CX:

• Robust onboarding and training, including cultural immersion, soft skills, and regular product/process updates
• Empowerment and autonomy to creatively solve customer issues and improve processes
• Collaborative feedback loops to surface and rapidly address employee pain points and suggestions
• Recognition and growth opportunities to boost motivation and reduce turnover
• Wellness and well-being programs to manage stress and prevent burnout

When employees feel valued, supported, and inspired, they naturally channel that into their customer interactions. No amount of CX technology or process can compensate for disgruntled, apathetic staff.

Embedding Continuous CX Improvement

Becoming a customer first organization is not a one-and-done initiative. It‘s an ongoing journey that requires relentless focus, iteration, and optimization.

Institute regular processes to monitor CX performance, gather customer feedback, uncover irritants and opportunities, and drive systematic improvements. Some key components:

• Voice of Customer programs to continuously gather and analyze customer feedback and sentiment across touchpoints (surveys, reviews, social listening, support interactions, etc.)
• Journey analytics to identify high-friction moments and optimization opportunities across the end-to-end customer journey
• Closed-loop follow-up to ensure that feedback is acted upon and customers are notified of changes made based on their input
• Rapid experimentation through agile, cross-functional teams empowered to quickly test and iterate on new CX ideas
• Executive dashboards tracking leading and lagging indicators of CX health, with full accountability for driving improvements

The most customer-centric companies don‘t just gather mountains of CX data. They have clear processes for translating those insights into action, and holding themselves accountable for moving the needle on key metrics.

Embracing Customer First as a Competitive Advantage

In the experience economy, customer-centricity isn‘t just a feel-good strategy. It‘s a significant competitive differentiator with major bottom-line impact.

Consider these compelling case studies:

• USAA, the financial services company known for its white-glove customer service, consistently achieves NPS scores over 80 in an industry where the average is 34.^10 That customer loyalty translates into real dollars: USAA‘s average member stays with the company for 19 years and purchases 8 products.^11

• Chewy, the pet e-commerce player, has built a cult following through gestures like sending handwritten holiday cards, surprising customers with free pet portraits, and even shipping 1000s of free meals during natural disasters.^12 The result? Chewy‘s net sales per active customer have grown every single quarter for the last 3 years.^13

• Ritz-Carlton, the luxury hotel chain renowned for empowering staff to ‘make it right‘ for guests, enjoys 80%+ occupancy rates, 3X the industry average. And Ritz-Carlton guests spend 50% more per stay than guests at other hotels.^14 That‘s the definition of experience driving the bottom line.

Contrary to popular belief, becoming customer first doesn‘t mean sacrificing profitability for the sake of CX. Rather, customer-centricity is the most sustainable path to growth and competitive advantage.

As Jeff Bezos put it: "If there‘s one reason we have done better than of our peers in the Internet space over the last six years, it is because we have focused like a laser on customer experience."^15

Making 2024 the Year of the Customer

Customer first isn‘t a buzzword or a short-term initiative. It‘s a long-term business strategy—and increasingly, an existential imperative. With customer expectations rising exponentially and competitors just a click away, CX has emerged as the key battleground on which business will be won or lost.

But while the destination is clear, the path can be arduous. Becoming truly customer first requires fundamentally rewiring your mindsets, behaviors, processes, and capabilities across the organization. It demands significant and sustained investment in people, technology, data, and culture. There will be resistance, detours, and challenges along the way.

However, for companies willing to commit to the journey, the rewards are immense. From deeper customer loyalty to more zealous word of mouth to faster revenue growth, customer-centricity is the ultimate win-win: what‘s good for customers is good for business.

So as you look ahead to 2024 and beyond, challenge yourself:

• How can you move beyond lip service to instill customer-centricity into every fiber of your organization?
• How can you more deeply understand and proactively address your customers‘ evolving needs and expectations?
• How can you empower and energize your employees to always do right by your customers?
• How can you leverage technology and data to deliver more personalized, frictionless, and memorable experiences?
• How can you institutionalize continuous CX improvement and hold yourself accountable for raising the bar?

Becoming customer first is not a tactic, but a transformation. And there‘s no better time than the present to begin. The companies that put customers at the heart of their strategy, their culture, and their operations will be the ones left standing tall when the dust settles.

Your customers deserve nothing less than your best. It‘s time to give it to them.

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