Today it is a fact that consumers are more empowered than ever. This is mainly due to immediate access to unlimited sources of information. In terms of seconds, they can compare, contrast, ask and recommend products or services. We are witnessing the Age of the Customer.
In this context, companies are compelled to adapt their business models and focus not only on those who have the knowledge but also, on those who have the purchasing power. Here is when Customer Centricity comes. In fact, it has been proven that customer-centric companies are much more profitable than those who do not focus on the customers. However, do we exactly know what Customer Centricity means? Customer centricity has been linked to any effort to “put customers first” such as consumer closeness programs or customer-friendly systems.
However, two factors question the real meaning of this concept:
1) The lack of agreement among exiting academic literature
2)The exiting gap between companies and customers perception in terms of customer experience delivery. A research carried out by Bain&Co identified that 80% of companies assume they are consistently giving customers what they want and only 8% of costumers agreed with this statement
This ambiguity between Customer Centricity and “put customers first” has formed the focus of research for the IE Center for C-Centricity. Here we will try to decode what Customer Centricity actually is and how it should be implemented.
You might be interested:
Eizaguirre,M. & Alvarado,M. (2020). Decoding Customer Centricity