Are You Customer Centric?
Customer Centricity in the Financial Industry
The Financial Sector is one of the trickier Industries to fully implement a customer centric approach. With a broad customer base, it’s difficult to cater to everyone’s needs. Banks are starting to use social media as a platform to communicate with customers, however the communication can be considered one sided, as most often, the only group receiving data and information from the social media sites are the marketing teams, which isn’t all that helpful if customers are enquiring about a financial matter.
Another detail to consider is the vast age difference that the financial sector caters for, especially Banks. The older generation who are more accustomed to in branch banking, don’t necessarily use the online tools available. Whereas millennials may prefer to use online banking and less in branch banking. This divide puts banks in a difficult position as they must accommodate for both, without compromising on the customer experience. With more and more branches closing down, due to new technological advancements, this may put a whole generation in a difficult predicament. However, with the new technological advancements, come risks and it’s important for millennials to understand that using online banking, especially through an app on your phone, may lead to security problems.
Banking impacts our lives daily and with the influence of new tech, it’s important that banks renew and modernise, in order to put customers at the heart and enable a more customer centric approach.
Customer Centricity in the Aviation Industry
The Aviation Industry is constantly changing with new mergers, markets, economic influences etc. With this in mind it’s imperative that this sector stops making assumptions of what their customers may want and focus their efforts on finding out what their customers actually need.
Helsinki Airport trialled 12 prototype ideas to make internal transfer experiences for their flyers more enjoyable. These ranged from Mobile Coffee vendors, popup Yoga classes and information boards. This experiment resulted in Helsinki Airport being voted the best airport in Northern Europe. The inclusion of customer ideas throughout the process made customers the centre of this endeavour, meaning that this experiment went beyond a boardrooms assumption but instead including and valuing customer opinions.
The significant results from this experiment really highlight the importance for the aviation industry to understand customer needs and improve the customers experience, both before the flight, during and after. This positive change will help create a more enjoyable process for every customer.
With a variety of Airlines to choose from, it’s important to acknowledge how customers pick and choose based on past experiences. Airlines, who are thought to be monetary driven, are now needing to implement methods to improve customer experiences, to be able to compete. The results of emphasising on customer happiness, create customer loyalty which leads to more revenue resulting in a win-win situation for both the customer and the airline.
Customer Centricity in the Hospitality Industry
Businesses which invest their whole team focus on supporting their perspective and existing customers are more likely to be customer centric. This applies to the majority of industries and hospitality is not an exception. Some may argue that the hospitality industry must be customer centric by default – after all its’s all about satisfying customer expectations, right? However, being an industry that has no tangible products to sell where experiences vary from person to person means more challenges.
The aim of modern hospitality organisations is increasing revenue and occupancy rates by improving customer experience. Every customer is different however, and hotel managers need to have a clear idea of customers’ needs, preferences and behaviour and identify in what way the service can provide value for the customers and stimulate retention and loyalty. Five-star facilities will not mean much if the wrong attitude and lack of understanding of guests prevail.
This leads to talent management – a term frequently used in the UK hospitality industry to describe the attraction, acquisition and most importantly retention of talented and committed individuals that deliver excellent customer service. Talent management is considered a key driver of change towards a customer centric culture and a source of competitive advantage. The notion of customer centricity dates back to the 1950s. Constantly changing customer behaviours, competitive markets and advances in technology have made the way the customer is managed more central to business activities.