All about customer focus: What is customer focus?

An example to illustrate the difference between customer focus and customer friendliness:

What is customer focus? and what is customer friendliness? It's not exactly the same thing. One of our official relations has a somewhat complex way of processing changes. To communicate a simple change, a form must be downloaded, filled out and then sent through the mail. This institution communicates that in an extremely friendly way to people who have questions about it. Customers are usually understanding, especially after a friendly explanation from the employee.

In this case, customer friendliness is in order. Customers in this case rated contact with the service department an 8. Yet the example is anything but customer-oriented. A customer-oriented company would provide a customer-friendly process in addition to friendly communication. So making a change as easy and pleasant as possible for the customer.

By the way, you often see that businesses that are customer-oriented are often customer-friendly.

What is customer focus?

Dozens of definitions of customer focus circulate on the Internet. Yet they generally don't quite cover it. It is often about paying attention to customers, listening to customers, putting customers first, etc. We see customer focus rather as a business philosophy in which the wishes and needs of (potential) customers are central to everything you do. Customer-centricity is that little man who raises his finger at every decision and consultation and says, "What will our customers gain from this?".

What is customer focus? Our definition of customer-centricity:

Customer focus is the extent to which an organization puts customer needs first and the extent to which business processes are aligned with we customer needs. In doing so, it is necessary to have continuous insight into how customers experience the service and in what areas products, services, service, and business processes can be further tailored to the customer, customer needs and customer experience.

Customer focus is the customer first pose. That doesn't mean, especially exclaiming that you are customer-centric, that you are customer-focused. No, it stands for knowing your customer and making sure that you meet the customer's wants and needs.

Does being customer-centric mean always meeting all customer needs?

No, it doesn't. Commercial companies in particular need to look critically at their customers. After all, not every customer is equally interesting. In fact, being customer-centric also means being able to sell "no." No, the moment you simply cannot meet the wants or needs of a particular customer or customer groups. That too is customer focus, being honest about what you can and cannot do. By the way, this does not always have to do with the profitability of certain customers or customer groups. Let's face it, some customers just whine, or rather have a certain set of expectations that you as a company have trouble meeting. So customer focus also means saying to those groups: "We cannot provide what you would like, you may be in a better place with another supplier."

From the outside in

The moment you decide you want to improve customer orientation, it means that you will have to redesign your processes to meet the needs of your customers. So that means that you have to start a dialogue with your customers and start a process where you are constantly adapting your operations and your business processes to a constantly changing market and customer needs. What is customer focus if you don't know what to focus on. Customer focus is therefore not a project that is finished. Your customers change and so the way you can meet their needs is also constantly changing. What is customer focus? We hope our blog on that topic has given you an answer to that question. On Wikipedia you can read more about CRM for example.