Emotional Engagement and Customer Centricity

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Top Takeaways:

• Customer centricity happens when everyone in the organization is focused on customer engagement. That engagement is more than just satisfaction—it’s about an emotional connection with your customers.
• Leadership, culture, and talent are the three elements that gets everyone involved in an organization’s alignment.
• Customer-centric leaders immerse themselves in the customer experience and spend time on the frontlines of customer service.
• Give your customers a voice in your company. Actively involve them in problem-solving and give them a seat at the table.
• Leaders must model the company culture they wish to see.
• Customer centricity must be part of an organization’s values. These values must be visible to all employees and felt by customers. Define the behaviors you wish to see and empower those frontline employees to deliver on those values.
• Even internal employees who may never directly interact with customers still have an impact on the customer experience. So, every employee must recognize their place in the customer journey.
• The three metrics that drive emotional engagement are: pride, passion, and confidence.
• Engaged employees lead to engaged customers. Fully engaged employees and customers translate into greater profit and success for your company.
• Service values are similar to core values. They define standards of service on how to delight customers and should ignite and inspire employees, not stifle their initiative.
• Recognize the difference between skill, talent, and knowledge. Skill can be transferred, knowledge can be learned, but talent is innate. Part of hiring right is finding that talent.
• Much of driving customer-centricity boils down to measurement. Measurement alone isn’t enough, though—you must use what you learn to improve the process and drive a better customer experience.

Quotes:

“A customer-centric culture is where everyone is engaged in creating engagement for our customer. That engagement is emotional engagement, not just satisfaction or loyalty.”

“Even if you’re behind the scenes, you need to know how you, directly and indirectly, impact the customer experience and customer engagement.”

“Emotional engagement of employees and customers pays off in terms of tremendous financial value in the long term.”

“A lot of the effort around driving customer-centricity boils down to measurement. It’s what you do with that—how you translate it to the front lines and use it to inspire and engage.”

About:

Vibhas Ratanjee is a Senior Practice Expert with Gallup who specializes in organizational development, culture change and executive-level engagement strategies. Vibhas is an executive coach and a leadership consultant to senior executives and CEOs, as well as a well-known speaker and author.

Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert, New York Times bestselling author, award-winning keynote speaker, and your host of Amazing Business Radio.

This episode of Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken answers the following questions … and more:

1. What does it mean to be customer-centric?
2. How can I build a customer-centric culture?
3. What are service values and core values?
4. How can I drive customer and employee engagement?
5. How can I hire the best people for customer-facing roles?