Customer orientation — definition, examples & tips

Definition: What is customer focus?

Customer orientation is a corporate management approach in which customers and their needs are placed above the company's. What does that mean? To support the customer in every situation and to provide them with personalized and holistic results. Standard “off the shelf” solutions are out of place here.

Anyone who deals with customer-oriented companies quickly realizes that it's not just about short-term, quick profits — but that customers really matter to the company. The customer is not just a means to an end to make a profit. The motto “The customer comes first” is really lived there. Because customer-oriented companies know that they can only be successful if they put the customer at the center of all their activities and consistently drive this focus forward.

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Examples of customer-oriented companies

What can customer orientation look like? There are no fixed criteria for this — depending on the company's sector and customer needs, it can have very different facets. Let's look at two examples of companies:

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1st Zappos

The US e-commerce company specializes in fashion and shoes — and in consistent customer orientation. Zappos is convinced that customer service can build close relationships between employees and customers. For Zappos, the focus is on a central need of their buyers: that someone takes care of their concerns. And the friendly and emphatic service staff satisfy this need.

But it doesn't stop there: Zappos employees have the freedom to go the extra mile for customers — even completely outside the actual range of services. This can also mean that a service agent orders a customer a pizza when he asks him about it at the end of the chat.

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2nd Patagonia

The outdoor clothing company focuses on sustainability and environmental protection. This attracts customers who care about exactly that and are willing to spend more money on quality products that last a long time. One of the customer requirements is therefore longevity. That is one of Patagonia's quality promises.

But what if something does break? Where other companies would be more likely to rely on generating new sales through repeat purchases in the case of broken or worn clothes, Patagonia is choosing a different path. In doing so, they meet customer expectations and remain true to their mission:

With their “Worn Wear” initiative, they partner with their buyers to repair, share, or recycle clothes. In tutorials, they teach the community how to repair their clothes themselves. The company also allows them to resell their used Patagonia clothes on the official website or exchange them for a voucher at Patagonia stores.

How can companies behave in a customer-oriented manner? 8 tips

In order to establish customer orientation in a company, various factors in the company are important. Employees, corporate culture and management play an important role. We have eight tips on what you can do in these areas:

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1. Listen to your customers and collect feedback. You can do this, for example, via surveys or short satisfaction surveys. But you can also get valuable feedback, suggestions and ideas from your customers on social media.
2. Stay in touch with your customers and be available. Make it as easy as possible for them to contact you. Here, you should access various channels such as the classic hotline, e-mail, social media and innovative tools such as chatbots Set.
3. Set goals based on customer feedback: When it comes to customer feedback, there will certainly be areas in which you do worse than planned. Take feedback seriously and set yourself specific goals to achieve improvements‍
4. Hire friendly and empathetic service people. Your customer service team should consist of people who are happy to answer customer inquiries, are happy to help, and are engaged. You can also teach certain technical skills through training courses.

5. Give the customer support team the freedom to resolve most customer issues on their own and perhaps also to take unconventional paths here. Employees should also be able to suggest changes to management that would benefit customers in the long term. After all, they are the closest thing to consumers.
6. Treat your employees as your most valuable asset. Whether they enjoy going to work has a big impact on how they respond to customers. Satisfied and committed employees work more efficiently and have a more positive relationship with customers.
7. Provide world-class training. Ideally, you should train your entire team on your customer-focused approach. Tell them what customer orientation means for your company and which values are important to you. Provide customer-focused training. In these, your team should learn who your customers are, how they use your product and how they can meet customer needs. In concrete terms, they ideally know how to solve complaints easily and efficiently and how to look after customers personally and sensitively.
8. Management must support customer orientation. Otherwise, the approach cannot work, for example if the Zappos employee would have been criticized for ordering pizza afterwards. Management must also set an example of the corporate culture and the values that go hand in hand with customer orientation.

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Customer orientation goals

Customer-oriented companies have a central goal: Satisfying the needs of their customers and thus keeping them close to themselves for longer twine. But why should you go to the trouble of ordering the customer pizza, for example, even though it's not part of the business model? Or start worn wear initiatives? It's simple: It's more expensive to acquire new customers than to retain existing ones.

Companies have to spend a lot of money on marketing measures to persuade new customers to buy. On average, the costs for Acquisition of new customers between five and seven times higher than customer loyalty!

In addition, the happier customers are, the more likely they are to recommend the brand to others. The customer focus therefore also attracts new customers.

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What are the success factors for customer orientation?

As I said at the beginning and as the two company examples show, customer orientation can take on very different forms. But there are a few general success factors:

• Make excellent customer service a central part of your corporate mission.

• Connect your entire company through customer-oriented values and make them present in the company (e.g. through internal campaigns).

• Let all employees have customer contact experiences. For example, each team member could spend a certain period of time in customer service or, if necessary, in branches.

• Create a central tool for your customer data and avoid different departments maintaining their own Excel lists. When all data is collected, it is easier for customer service to serve customers and customers feel understood and happier.

• Create a corporate culture that is based on trust and that gives employees the self-confidence to make independent decisions for the benefit of customers.

• Use the feedback that customer service receives in product development and to optimize processes.

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Conclusion: Build a loyal customer base through customer orientation

What do you need to take with you when it comes to customer orientation? Here are the most important points at a glance:

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• In this approach to corporate management, customer needs are above those of the company.

• Customer-oriented companies focus on the customer and provide them with personalized and holistic results.

• The central goal: to satisfy the needs of their customers and thus retain them with the company for longer.

• Friendly and empathetic employees with problem-solving skills play an important role in customer orientation. But the corporate culture should also be geared towards this, and management must support and exemplify this approach.

• The customer service team needs freedom to find and implement customer-oriented and out-of-the-box solutions.

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