Putting the customer first, in simple terms, means valuing the needs and expectations of your customer ahead of anything and everything else. But putting the customer first isn’t a strategy – it’s a culture!

Organisations that put the customer first are commonly referred to as being customer-centric. They’re oriented towards serving their customers’ needs and customer satisfaction as a measure of their success as a business. Read on for our top picks of customer-centric organisations and our tips for adopting a culture with the customer at its core.

Brands that have customer-centricity nailed

A lot of brands today are adopting a customer-first approach and doing a great job of building loyal customer bases as a result. Here are some of our favourite examples:

• Monzo

Not only does Monzo have the second-highest customer score among UK banks (tied with Triodos), but they also set up Monzo Labs earlier this year. It’s a way for their customers to access the latest features early, as well as share their feedback and ideas to help Monzo improve its product. Monzo is loved by millions of loyal customers because, quite simply, its product is good. It offered a solution for banking that was less than user-friendly. 

• Slack

Slack is a new way to communicate with your work team. It’s faster, better organised and more secure than email. Slack has been customer-centric from the start and was born out of listening to complaints about email. Data and feedback are massive at Slack. Instead of focusing on financial metrics like leads and pipeline opportunities, they look at customer-facing metrics like NPS and daily active users. The goal is to create loyal, satisfied users who recommend the service to friends and co-workers.

• Amazon

By staying close to consumers and reminding everyone in the organisation to do the same, Amazon created a brand that exists to serve customers. Adopting a vision to become “Earth’s most customer-centric company” wasn’t the usual arrogant hyperbole of big business. Amazon really did aim that high!

• Soho House

Soho House is a place for its diverse membership to connect, grow, have fun and make an impact. From the beginning and throughout its 25-year history, its customers have always been at the heart of everything they do. Many of Soho House’s developments are thanks to their customers. In a recent interview, Soho House founder, Nick Jones, explained how they saw a dip in membership usage so decided to figure out where their customers were – and followed them to the south of France. They rented a Yacht so they “could always be where their customers wanted them to be.”

Top tips for adopting a customer-first culture

So, you’ve got a great product and you’re ready to drive towards a culture of customer-centricity. But where do you start? 

1. Take a walk in their shoes

You already know why you built your products or services. You know how you built them and the way you intend for them to be used. Now, understand the actual value of your product or service to the customer. And communicate it!

2. Don’t stop now: dig deeper and do better

Don’t simply settle for good or delivering products and services that are good for right now. Invest in research and development to provide even more customer satisfaction.

3. Deliver on your promises

This one has to be a given for customer-centric organisations. If you say you’ll do something, do it – in the way and by the time you said you would. If you claim your product or service will provide something specific to your customers, make sure it does.

4. Adapt and change with time

Your customers’ needs and expectations are constantly changing. Your products, services and solutions should too.

5. Make it easy, make it clear

Putting the customer first means creating products or services that are easy for your customer to use. And, beyond that, it means communicating with your customers in a way that’s clear and easy to understand – through the channels they prefer.

6. The inside has to match the outside

A customer-centric organisation isn’t only putting the customer first externally. Internally, your employee culture has to be built on a foundation of customer-centricity. And remember, happy employees are far better equipped to keep your customers happy. What goes in, must come out.

Start today

Puzzel provides all the tools you need to deliver exceptional customer experiences and grow your business. Connect with customers on their favourite channels, build advanced self-service experiences with AI and optimise your team’s performance to increase efficiency and sales. All in our easy-to-use, cloud-native platform.

Get in touch today if you’d like to learn more about how Puzzel can help your organisation implement a customer-first culture.