Why customer centricity is the next big thing and what to do about it

If customer centricity were a high school kid, she’d be class president, valedictorian, and student director of the Lions Club and — what the heck — she’d probably be head cheerleader, too.

Point is, customer centricity is kind of a big deal, and by “kind of,” we mean “really.” Understatements are low key all the rave these days.

Customer centricity expert Bill Self confirms that a customer-centered focus is imperative to the success of an organization. So what is customer centricity? Why does it matter to lucky people like you and me in email marketing? And what specific actions should we take after reading about the grand universe of customer centricity?

What is customer centricity?

At the most basic level, customer centricity simply means putting the customer first. It’s the practice of treating the customer as an individual with unique needs, desires, and behaviors in a way that forges better business outcomes, whether in engagement or revenue.

Custora defines customer centric marketing as “a strategy that places the individual customer at the center of marketing design and delivery.” Unlike channel centric marketing which prioritizes channel-specific metrics such as “likes” on Facebook or product centric marketing which prioritizes selling specific products, customer centric marketing takes a bit more of a holistic approach to metrics and looks at customer lifetime value (CLV) to measure marketing decisions.

The rise of the interwebs in the late 1990s has really helped marketers achieve customer centricity because they can now track shopping behavior on an individual level online and then contact those shoppers in a highly personalized way, via email, push notifications, in-app notifications, web notifications, and more.

And now, a quick example break!

The batch-and-blast model of sending promotional emails has traditionally followed a very channel centric strategy by putting engagement metrics such as open rate over customer experience.

For instance, 73% of consumers in a survey reported that they expect brands to reward them with personalized discounts and special offers. Customer centric messages that incorporate various elements of personalization resonate more with customers overall, as shown by the fact that personalization correlates with increases in revenue.

Why would an email marketer care?

Practicing customer centricity in the realm of email boils down to sending highly relevant, personalized messages. Personalization works out great for customers as well as marketers because customers receive what they care about and businesses make more sales.

Research from Forrester revealed that 22% of companies who made the customer the center of their total operating models exceeded their revenue goals for the past 3 years in a row. In contrast, a mere 2% of companies who were considered to be less customer-centric exceeded their revenue goals for the last 3 years.

Understanding the trifecta of customer centricity

In order to be customer centric, email marketers need to live and breathe the axiom “everyone is different.” NG Data argues that truly customer centric marketers understand there is no such thing as an average customer.

1. The right message.

First off, use a conversational tone to talk to your customer like a friend.

Use product recommendations in your emails, and make sure those recommendations apply to the individual you’re talking to.

A recent survey found that while over half of marketers recommend products based on audience segment, only a quarter recommend products on a personalized basis.

The same survey found that a quarter of consumers like product recommendations in emails that are based on previously viewed or purchased items online. Your customers want personalized product recommendations, not picked product recommendations. Simple segmentation isn’t enough anymore.

2. At the right time.

Triggered, email automations based on real-time data yield nearly five times the click rate and double the open rate than traditional batch and blast promotional emails. Despite these awesome statistics, triggered email automations comprised less than 7% of email marketing campaigns in 2017.

3. For the right customer.

Research from Fresh Relevance found that 28% of consumers are more likely to be loyal to a store that sends them personalized email messages.

How do you personalize? Collect information on your customers, and then create messages that reflect your customers’ profiles and behaviors.

Take an audit of how focused your email strategy is on sending the right message at the right time to the right customer. It’ll certainly be worth your time as email is the marketing channel with the highest ROI. So go forth and maximize that return.