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6 habits of customer-centric companies

BY SARAH

WRAY

CUSTOMER CENTRICITY I MAY 15, 2015

While there is no one size ts all denition of a customer-centric company,

youll nd that businesses that are winning at customer experience have
certain things in common.

RELATED ARTICLES

Weve rounded up six of the habits youll recognize time and time again.
According to Rob Rich, Managing Director, Insights Research, TM Forum,
These principles are common to customer-centric companies which are
leaders in satisfaction and loyalty. They must be built into your plan.
These principles also run throughout this years Customer-centricity and data
analytics summit at TM Forum Live!. The theme is identifying what it means to
be customer-centric and, crucially, what to do to actually make it happen. Rob
Rich will kick things o with an in-depth look at these six principles and
signpost some tools and best practices to help you get there.

90% organizations collecting ongoing

customer feedback
Jul 20, 2016

Experts from companies like Wal-Mart, Comcast, AT&T and more will share
their experience with customer-centricity, and Catalysts such as the Pulse:
Creating and Building a Deeper Connection with the Small/Medium Business
Customer project will look at new and innovative ways to engage with
customers on a more emotional level.
In the meantime, heres a teaser so you can assess where you stand now and
make your action plan for progress at TM Forum Live! (Weve even mapped
out a suggested event journey to make it easy for you to choose the most
relevant sessions quickly.)

Improving customer experience drives

revenue
Jul 19, 2016

6 THINGS CUSTOMER-CENTRIC COMPANIES DO WELL

1. Take an outside-in approach
Customer-centric companies look to deeply understand customer problems
and deliver solutions for them. This often includes bundling of support such
as advice, knowledge or otherHome
services toNews
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the
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best solution, and understand how to optimally deploy and use it.
Make it happen
Learn from the best: AT&T, Visa Europe, TurkCell AS, Hewlett Packard:
Customer-centric innovation in a digital world
Read: First-hand examples of success from Google and Skype
Free download: Becoming a customer-centric business

Action Week: Its a wrap and what a

wrap
Jul 15, 2016

2. Understand the customer across the lifecycle

Customer-centric companies develop a holistic view of individual customers
interactions and experiences over the life of their relationship.

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They recognize that customers needs change over that time, and they
respond to the change continuously, as it occurs. A good example of this
approach comes from Amazon.com, which combines customer purchase and
interaction experiences with those of similar customers to create customized
purchase recommendations.

Customer experience integrator: A

huge opportunity for service providers
Jul 14, 2016

Make it happen

Learn from the best: Telekom SA: Measuring your customers experience
Measure it: TM Forum Customer experience lifecycle model
3. Empower employees at the point of interaction
Customer-centric companies endow their employees with the authority and
accountability to take action, and address customers needs at the point of
contact. This allows the employee to make judgments and quickly solve
problems within their specic context. This approach is exemplied by RitzCarlton whose motto, We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and
gentlemen, is supported by a variety of guidelines, daily contextual
evaluation and a focus on employees development.

TM Forum announces Digital World

Award winners
Jul 13, 2016
show more

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For service providers serving business customers this means building highly
trained, empowered account teams (or channel partners), and upgrading
customer support processes and tools.
Make it happen
Learn from the best: Comcast: Shaping a customer-centric culture at
Comcast
How to: Shaping the T-team: Leading customer-centric transformation
4. Have ecient, tailored business processes

More work needed to understand

RA maturity in the wider business
context

Customer-centric companies strive for eciency in their processes to

increase speed and satisfaction. They also recognize the need to tailor
processes and performance based on customer characteristics such as
customer lifetime value. For example, high-value customers often experience
faster response or more options for solving a problem. Preferred customer
programs, pioneered by American Airlines but now oered by many
companies, are a good example of this. In fact, all customers value speed and
simplicity in their interactions with companies.
Make it happen
Learn from the best: Du: Empower employees to drive customer centricity
in the digital world creating coherence, consistency and
comprehensiveness
Free download: Becoming an agile business
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Action Week: Its a wrap and

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In action: Digital operations summit: TM Forum Live!

5. Ensure cross-company consistency and transparency
Customer-centric companies understand that customers ultimately build
their perceptions of a company, based on the whole company, and expect
consistent and predictable interactions across organizational boundaries and
interaction channels.
They also know that it is not enough to be responsive, knowledgeable,
ecient and consistent. They must demonstrate this to their customers on
demand, at a transaction level, to gain their trust.

How to transform your business

for the digital age: Unleash last
mover advantage

Make it happen
Share

Learn from the best: BH Telecom, Salesforce, Comcast Business, Apptium

Technologies: Omnichannel a consistent and customer-centric approach
Free download: Omnichannel: Driving a consistent, personalized brand
experience
In action: Security & Privacy workshop, TM Forum Live!

6. Makes data-driven decisions

Customer-centric companies understand that execution of their strategy is

highly dependent on having the right information at the right time. This
requires the capture, management and analysis of relevant data to create
business and customer value.

Action Week: Frameworx as youve

never visualized it before

Make it happen
Learn from the best: Deutsche Telekom AG, Portugal Telecom, 1&1
Telecommunications AG: Leading-edge strategies in data-driven customer
engagement
Read examples of success from Sephora, Skype, Robi Axiataand even
Formula One

OPINION

VIEW ALL

FOLLOW THIS TOPIC

GDPR could change companies

business models

Written by Sarah Wray -Editor, Digital content, TM Forum

Prior to joining the Forum, she wrote for a range of technology clients. Sarah is most interested
in the stories and people behind the technology.

RTCC: Reaching the tipping

point?

IoT and the connected

home: We need to get over
ourselves and work
together

Smart cities: Those who share,

win?

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TM Forum, ZTEsoft, and the

city of Yinchuan, China
collaborate to spread smart
city and digital business best
practices across the globe

Do we need a creep-o-meter?

Omnichannel: What is it and

how to do it?

Most CEOs and boards dont

know what customers want

Help with mapping out our

digital future

Frameworx turns 16: Whats

new?

How Nordstrom uses

technology to enhance
customer experience

TM Forum Live! more than

lives up to expectations

Meet the winners: Companies

recognized for digital services
innovation

Catalysts continue to connect,

collaborate and create

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1 COMMENT
abyot
May27,2015at3:26pm

Location data: The secret sauce in

the IoT 3 examples in action

iamsalesrepresentative,sothatiwanttobeupgrademycustomerhandling.thenhelpmeassales
person.thankyouforyourgoodsupport.
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