If Your Business Isn't Customer-Centric, You Are 60% Less Profitable. I've Tried 20+ Approaches In 4 Years & This Is My 4-Step Guide To Becoming Customer-Centric.

According to research by Deloitte, customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable, compared to companies that aren't.

Why do you think that is?

By understanding your customers and their needs, you can create an online store that is both engaging and effective.

But to make a real impact and ensure your customer-centric strategy is truly working, you need to adopt a data-driven business approach.

This means that you need to make decisions based on meaningful metrics and constantly fine-tune your operations to ensure you’re meeting your goals (and your customers’ needs).

So if you’re looking for e-commerce success, make sure to focus on your customers and track your metrics!

Customer centricity is a mindset.

I have always been a firm believer that prioritizing your customers and putting their needs first, is the winning business approach, regardless of the industry or niche you’re trying to conquer.

Naturally, from the moment I decided to start my own business, I was convinced that I have to create a business that is, first and foremost, customer-centric.

In the past 4 years, I have approached customer centricity in a myriad ways and, today, I will give you the ultimate 4-step model to adopting the customer-centric business strategy and gaining the competitive edge.

Step 1: Identify a problem and find a meaningful solution to that problem.

Let’s start with an important takeaway from the previous topic on how to start a business and launch a successful startup brand:

This insight is essential.

And it is 100% applicable to customer centricity as well: the first and most important thing you should do is align with your customers’ needs.

This is what will set you apart and give you the competitive edge.

It will also deliver the best possible results both for your customers and, consequently, for your business.

In the case of e-commerce, once you have the right products (that solve your customers’ problems) and provide a high-quality customer service, you will have completed the first step towards having a customer-centric business.

Step 2: Be driven by customer satisfaction, instead of profit.

Once again, customer centricity is the perfect brand differentiator.

Most businesses out there are driven by profit instead of customer satisfaction.

This means that they are not providing as much value to their customers and, as a result, aren’t building meaningful customer relationships.

Therefore, their customers’ LTV and other important performance metrics (such as engagement rate, MRR, etc.) are lower as well.

This is a strategy that is going to benefit you in the long-term.

The best part?

Not only will this strategy set you apart from your competitors, but also make your customers notice that, ultimately, you’re not after their money, but you want to meet their needs and make their lives easier.

As an added benefit, this will also help you tell a richer brand story and highlight the benefits of your products in a more meaningful way.

In turn, this will result in a ton of word-of-mouth marketing which you can turn into a solid acquisition channel in the long-term.

“How?” you may ask.

Well, people are going to turn into brand ambassadors.

They will talk about your brand more, they are going to share it with their friends and family… and this can have a snowball effect and drive a ton of traffic to your Shopify store.

Ultimately, this will grow your sales (in the short-term) and can have a major impact on your revenue (in the long-term).

Step 3: Be extremely data-driven.

Measure everything from the beginning!

This is the one thing that I started doing later in the process and now I wish I had started doing earlier (because I think it would have been much more beneficial if I had).

So, measure everything you’re doing in your business.

For example, something essential that you need to start measuring, is how many people are coming to your store and through which acquisition channels (aside from SEO and PPC).

Are they coming back to your store to place another order? Were they referred by a friend? It’s extremely important to measure this type of website traffic - the one coming from the word-of-mouth marketing, so to speak.

Step 4: Gather meaningful data, measure its impact, and iterate.

Of course, you’ll need a dashboard for this. The Shopify Admin panel is a good example - it has a lot of things you can benefit from and a lot of numbers you can work with.

To wrap everything up, adopting a customer-centric approach, powered by meaningful data, is fundamental to your e-commerce success.

This is a strategy that will benefit you in the long-term, so, you should absolutely consider implementing it.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out - I’d be happy to address your concerns and unblock any potential challenges you may face.

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