We are unequivocally living in the age of customer centricity; an age where no marketing effort is able to override the negative impact of poor customer service

 
This particular state of brand/customer relations means that the experience a customer has with a brand is almost, if not more, important than the products themselves.
 
Take McDonald’s as an example. In 2015 the global fast food chain reduced their number of menu items and launched the ‘All Day Breakfast’ (though of course this has been temporarily reduced due to Covid-19) which gave them a solid jump in growth.
 
They also had a big digital push which involved things like their in-store kiosks (which are now part and parcel of the Mcdonald’s experience, particularly in larger cities), mobile apps and delivery services.
 
These changes have vastly improved McDonald’s customer experience, attracted many more millennials to the brand, and increased the company’s sales. In this blog, we take a look at some key marketing trends that make this kind of well-thought out customer centricity such a success.

Single Customer View

Having a single customer view is necessary for your brand to be able to deliver real data-driven interactions to your customers. A single customer view works by combining every piece of information you have on an individual in order to give you a truly 360 view of that customer.
 
Combining, structuring and actioning your data to then deliver these personalised interactions is important – this is how you get real value from your customer data.
 
When we talk about data, this is where it all starts. Customer centricity is nothing without proper knowledge about your customer – and a single customer view is the best way to achieve this so you can deliver personalised interactions that really count.
 
The single customer view then enables you to deliver personalisation, as all of your customer data will be in one place and so you can base your messaging on the customer’s individual needs, behaviours and preferences.
 

Personalisation / Contextualisation / Individualisation

Three terms often mistaken as being synonymous, personalisation, contextualisation and individualisation are crucial to any marketer’s customer centricity strategy.

• Personalisation ensures that the offers, content and website experience meet the exact requirements and interests of your customer.
• Contextualisation takes into account the when and the why of the engagement or purchase – for example adding dynamic content to your emails driven by external factors such as weather, location and time.
• Individualisation takes what you know about a specific customer and looks at how you can use that to make the customers experience individual and relevant to them.

 
Done right, these three marketing practices just look like a great customer experience – and this is the beating heart of customer centricity.
 
When you provide a personalised, contextualised and individualised experience to a customer then they are going to enjoy the experience with your brand, meaning they will shop more. This in turn is what leads to customer loyalty.

Customer Loyalty

It costs from five to twenty-five times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing one. Having loyal customers will only happen if you are pursuing customer centricity, and vice versa – you can almost think of them as two sides of the same coin.
 
Customer loyalty is pretty much a measure of how well you are doing at customer centricity, as it reveals the connection your customers have with your brand, as well as how well your brand is doing in terms of customer engagement.
 
Customer loyalty comes from giving your customers a really valuable experience. Putting them first – by becoming truly customer centric – is the only way to go about this. Use the data you have about them to make every interaction they have with you count.