Are you customer-obsessed yet? Here is why you should be

I recently attended a Marketing conference organized by Bulldog Solutions where the main theme revolved around the Age of the Customer and Social Media selling. Everyone in the audience agreed that we are in the middle of the biggest disruption to the traditional marketing model that we’ve ever seen. Here are some stats that I heard during the conference that may surprise you:

• 90% of B2B purchases start with an online search
• 74% of business buyers say buying from a website is more convenient
• 53% find going online superior to interacting with a salesperson
• 68% want vendors who understand ME (the buyer/customer)
• 42% of adults access data through a device
• 50% want vendors to “share insights I don’t know about my industry or market”
• By 2020, 50% of the workforce will be under 30 (aka, millenials). 

No doubt, your future customers are digitally-savvy and mobile-obsessed. In fact, so obsessed that they are online almost 24/7 and the number of mobile devices will explode to 500 billion by 2025, according to Cisco’s executive chairman and former CEO John Chambers.

What would it take for your company to excel in the next 5 to 10 years? The key to thriving in the Age of the Customer will rely heavily on 2 major shifts:

1. Adoption and leverage of digital technology throughout your enterprise. The marriage between IT and Marketing is imperative and key to the survival of a marketing-led, customer-obsessed company.  You can read more about this shift in Forrester's Blueprint for strategy in the AoC
2. Exceptional customer experience (CX): personalized, contextualized, mobile experience for your future advocates would be key. Think of Starbucks with mobile payment or Chase with mobile check deposit. Think fast, easily accessible and constantly connected.

In the Age of the Customer, “those that prosper will merge brand, marketing, and company-wide functional interactions into a unified, forward-looking customer experience strategy.“ 
-Michelle Moorehead, Analyst for Forrester

To create an exceptional customer experience you have to become literally customer-obsessed. But what does that mean exactly? 

It starts with the design of a customer experience (CX) to build differentiated brand interactions that connect customer engagement across the full customer lifecycle. 

Where do you start? Start with your top customers.

1. Choose top logos and align with other departments in your company to become customer-obsessed. Collaborate across your enterprise to present a unified version of your product across all your marketing channels.  

2. Secure their commitment, even at a discount, and personalize their experience offline and online.

3. Delight your customers and turn them into future advocates by asking: Is my product easy to use? Are my customers delighted after using my product? Is it personalized to their current needs? Internally ask: am I using collected data to predict their needs and trends?

“GET CLOSER THAN EVER TO YOUR CUSTOMERS. SO CLOSE, IN FACT, THAT YOU TELL THEM WHAT THEY NEED WELL BEFORE THEY REALIZE IT THEMSELVES.”

STEVE JOBS, FOUNDER OF APPLE

Wouldn't it be great to be so close to your customer that you can actually anticipate what their future needs will be? Becoming customer-obsessed is no longer a luxury, it will be a necessity for businesses that want to thrive in the Age of the Customer where, for the first time in decades, they may know more than you do about your product and your brand.

So go ahead, become customer-obsessed and let the magic begin.