Today, customer centricity for an organisation in today’s marketplace, you must place “the customer” at the core of your business and build products and services that are designed to suit the specific needs of customers.
This is about providing a great experience from the word go. Everything, from the first interaction with the organisation, to the purchase and after-sales support, must be designed with the customer in mind and implemented in such a way that customer only remembers a seamlessly smooth experience.
So, how do you become customer-centric?
So how do you become a successful, sustainable and customer-centric organisation? You must anticipate what your core customers need to find real ways of adding value to customers, solve their problems and make their lives easier.
Customer centricity in manufacturing requires a real shift in business strategy that puts the customer first, both for your products and your services. It offers a way for companies to satisfy increasing customer expectations, differentiates with more personalised products and retains more customers with exceptional customer service.
Put the customer at the centre
In the linear supply chain model, where each step is dependent on the one before it, the customer sits at the end of the model and the business focus is on processes with an unrealistic expectation for customer satisfaction. Inefficiencies at one stage result in a cascade of inefficiencies down the line. And when the customer and supplier are located at either end of the chain, it’s easy to see how collaboration breaks down, and end-to-end visibility is nearly impossible.
While businesses improved operational visibility through technological investments such as IoT or even looked into alternative eCommerce sales channels, the reality is that ongoing and real-time external collaboration with suppliers and customers remains vital to success.
A balance along the supply chain can be achieved when a customer is placed at the centre of the supply chain, and their experience is not regarded as an afterthought.
Using technology to build customer centricity
When the customer is placed at the center, the business focus is on customer satisfaction and businesses can then use technology to build the processes required to satisfy the customer.
Unfortunately, many manufacturers are still lagging behind and not leveraging their digital benefits and investments in technology. SYSPRO’s research revealed that only 20% of businesses had invested in data analytics tools to process and analyse the data that they were collecting, while only 5% of businesses had investigated AI and ML to draw any long-term benefit from the data collection. Data-driven decision-making should form part of a business’s daily operations.
Customer experience still makes or breaks
The old saying remains true today. The customer experience can make or break a business. Improving the customer experience will require better control by the business and over all of its processes.
Manufacturers need to look at the entire buying journey and ensure they are supporting the customer at every step. The technological barriers that prevented Manufacturers from offering a superior buying journey, no longer exist.
While the manufacturers have realised that they need to review their current technology solutions to meet the challenges of the future head-on, the key to success in this new digital era is selecting an ERP platform that is built from experience and designed with the needs of manufacturers and distributors in mind.
By integrating your operations into an ERP platform, you can ensure agility, and connectedness and embrace innovation to transform your business for enhanced growth and long-term sustainability. While ERP systems have been around for decades, organisations of all industries are increasingly recognising the unique value offered by a truly customer-centric ERP solution. It has become clear that to truly win over your customers, software solutions like ERP are vital in getting ahead of the competition.
