{"id":4475,"date":"2019-02-06T13:18:52","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T18:18:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/?p=4475"},"modified":"2020-12-19T20:39:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-20T01:39:03","slug":"10-principles-or-key-ingredients-of-a-thoughtful-customer-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/10-principles-or-key-ingredients-of-a-thoughtful-customer-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Principles or Key Ingredients of a Thoughtful Customer Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In these challenging times, it\u2019s no longer enough to target a few, select purchasers and develop products for that clientele.\u00a0 The key ingredient that most leaders overlook while serving their clients is a thoughtful and planned Customer Strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A robust Customer Strategy entails speaking the language of the customers, knowing how to anticipate their needs, working closely with them, and coming up with solutions to problems that have not been stated yet.\u00a0 This necessitates concentrating on developing long-term value and experiences for the customers, required offerings, channels, operating model, and capabilities.<\/p>\n

To be effective and to stay ahead of the curve, leaders need to pay attention to the following 10 principles for their Customer Strategy development<\/a>.\u00a0 These 10 principles of Customer Strategy<\/a> <\/strong>are familiar to most people, yet few observe them with the level of skill required in this age of disruption:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Innovate with Speed and Judgment<\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Recognize Your Customers Well<\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Link Customer Strategy to the Organizational Identity<\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. Focus on Core Customers<\/strong><\/li>\n
  5. Treat Customers as Assets<\/strong><\/li>\n
  6. Draw on Your Relationships Network<\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. Build an Omnichannel Customer Experience<\/strong><\/li>\n
  8. Develop a Delivery Strategy<\/strong><\/li>\n
  9. Restructure According to Your Customer<\/strong><\/li>\n
  10. Align Culture with the Customer Strategy<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s take a deeper look at the first 5 principles.<\/p>\n

    Innovate with Speed and Judgment<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    With scientific breakthroughs becoming a norm, efficient companies are persistently piloting innovative ideas to provide creative solutions and first-rate service to their customers. \u00a0Digital and mobile technologies are constantly transforming the customer interaction and preferences\u2014making it more important for companies to anticipate and manage technology related risks properly. \u00a0Before introducing new offerings, companies need to prudently decide about the innovative technologies that may fascinate their clients, to foster customer loyalty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    When anticipating emerging technologies, the ability to beat competition rests on consistently analyzing the technology arena, deciding which technologies will be of most significance in future, and testing new stuff and examining the outcomes.<\/p>\n

    Recognize <\/strong>Your Customers Well<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Quantitative customer segmentation is the thing of the past now; market leaders know their customers at a granular level.\u00a0 They gauge customer segmentation and insights as a critical factor in developing their customer strategy and routinely perform advanced customer analysis.<\/p>\n

    To carry out their customer analysis, business leaders draw from sources including customer behavior and psychographic data collected online and offline, real-time information, and geographic and mapping data. \u00a0They then utilize these insights into their internal decision making process, develop business platforms, initiate actionable growth initiatives, or evolve their business models.<\/p>\n

    Link Customer Strategy to Organizational Identity<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Quality value proposition is the hallmark of thriving businesses. \u00a0They are able to serve their customers in a way that is unmatched by their rivals. \u00a0To maintain their edge over competition, they build distinct capabilities and a diverse portfolio of products and services. \u00a0A coherent consolidation of value proposition, capabilities, and offerings dovetail into a firm\u2019s identity\u2014which is evident through its customer experience<\/a>: the way people interact with it and appreciate it.<\/p>\n

    However, creating a strong organizational identity isn\u2019t a routine ritual.\u00a0 Most companies do not really know what they represent. \u00a0They tend to mimic their competitors\u2019 moves, play defensive, and tweak their value proposition based on the rivals\u2019 offerings.\u00a0 They lack a clear focus on what\u2019s unique about them and what they do well\u2014i.e., aligning their organizational identity to their value proposition.<\/p>\n

    Focus on Core Customers<\/strong><\/h2>\n

    Organizations that have a strong identity do not compete everywhere.\u00a0 It is prudent for them to only venture in markets that offer reasonable chances of success\u2014in other words a right to win. \u00a0The right to win facilitates in limiting the value proposition that the organization offers, making it easier to specialize in, and serving a select group of customers satisfactorily instead of trying to reach a mass market.<\/p>\n

    Attempting to succeed in a market where a firm does not have the right to win puts significant time, efforts, and resources at risk.<\/p>\n

    Treat Customers as Assets <\/strong><\/h2>\n

    For a customer strategy to be effective, it is imperative to nurture long-term customer relationships and considering customers as assets that have tremendous potential to grow in value. \u00a0Leading firms do their best to manage their customer relationships, though it goes against important first steps that they generally take\u2014e.g., calculating the short-term ROI to acquire new customers, or the lifetime cost of a customer relationship at the individual or segment level.<\/p>\n

    Market leaders evaluate the customers\u2019 purchase journey to gather insights to grow and tailor relationships, invest in meeting the evolving needs of the customers, and consistently add new features based on customers\u2019 insights.<\/p>\n

    Interested in learning more about these and the other 5 key principles of Customer Strategy?\u00a0 You can download an <\/u>editable PowerPoint on 10 Principles of Customer Strategy<\/strong> here<\/u><\/a> on the Flevy documents marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    Do You Find Value in This Framework?<\/h2>\n

    You can download in-depth presentations on this and hundreds of similar business frameworks from the FlevyPro Library<\/a>. FlevyPro<\/a> is trusted and utilized by 1000s of management consultants and corporate executives. Here’s what some have to say:<\/p>\n

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    “As a small business owner, the resource material available from FlevyPro has proven to be invaluable. The ability to search for material on demand based our project events and client requirements was great for me and proved very beneficial to my clients. Importantly, being able to easily edit and tailor the material for specific purposes helped us to make presentations, knowledge sharing, and toolkit development, which formed part of the overall program collateral. While FlevyPro contains resource material that any consultancy, project or delivery firm must have, it is an essential part of a small firm or independent consultant’s toolbox.”<\/p>\n

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    “FlevyPro has been a brilliant resource for me, as an independent growth consultant, to access a vast knowledge bank of presentations to support my work with clients. In terms of RoI, the value I received from the very first presentation I downloaded paid for my subscription many times over! The quality of the decks available allows me to punch way above my weight \u2013 it’s like having the resources of a Big 4 consultancy at your fingertips at a microscopic fraction of the overhead.”<\/p>\n

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    \u2013 Omar Hern\u00e1n Montes Parra, CEO at Quantum SFE<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In these challenging times, it\u2019s no longer enough to target a few, select purchasers and develop products for that clientele.\u00a0 The key ingredient that most leaders overlook while serving their clients is a thoughtful and planned Customer Strategy. A robust Customer Strategy entails speaking the language of the customers, knowing how to anticipate their needs,… 10 Principles or Key Ingredients of a Thoughtful Customer Strategy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":110,"featured_media":4476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[81],"tags":[840,1478,1120,687,1479],"class_list":["post-4475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-strategy","tag-customer-experience","tag-customer-relationship-management","tag-customer-segmentation","tag-customer-strategy","tag-omnichannel-customer-experience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/110"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4475"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7919,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4475\/revisions\/7919"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}