Through consulting we stumble across many businesses with an attitude of "who cares about the customer!? We make lots of money and our product is in demand. A few customers lost because of bad service or a lack of options will do nothing to our bottom line. There are many more where they came from. Customers are not in short supply!"

Do businesses really understand the value of their customers? Do they really comprehend the fact that the customer IS the business? Without a customer there is no business! Finally, does business fully understand that customers are scarce resources? Once you have them, you best keep them.

Here are some brief pointers to ensure that you have a sustainable business going into the future:

  1. Know your customers! They are not all the same, they don't all buy the same products and they don't all have the same needs!
  2. Treat your customers as valuable stakeholders and not as numbers!
  3. Don't follow a blanket approach with your customers. They want precision interactions and precision products.
  4. Focus on successfully anticipating your customer's needs and act pro-actively.
  5. Measure your customer satisfaction and do something with the feedback.
  6. Listen to your customers, they provide valuable information about the design and operational working / non-working of your business. Include them, don't exclude them!
  7. Give your customers variety, they don't want limited options. Let them choose how they want to interact with the business.
  8. Be open, be honest, be transparent!
  9. Create a memorable experience!
  10. Let your customers be your brand agents.

You can find more information about the future customer and future customer service in our book: Future Business - the game has changed.

To assess the success of your Customer Service and Customer Relationship Management, do a NXTmove Business Design Audit of your business. For more information, click on "What is NXTmove" at the top of this page.