No. You are not customer-centric.

Something I hear regularly: “Customer-centricity is part of our values. So we’re already doing well.”

No, you’re not. Just because you say something, doesn’t make it so.

There’s a good chance you’re not really customer-oriented.

Just like most companies aren’t, by the way.

Yup, loyal readers will be familiar with these numbers, but we’ll repeat them once more.

“80% of companies say they’re customer oriented – but only 8% of their customers actually agree.”

I bet you’re keen to find out if you are doing as well as you thought you were. ?

Discover it in this interview I did at SMX München, one of the biggest digital conferences in Germany. Or read my tips about customer-centricity below the video.

P.S. More tips? Subscribe to our YouTube channel and don’t miss a single video.

1. Stop brainstorming about your customers. Talk to them.

Stop thinking about your customers.

There are loads of marketers, strategists and creatives who like nothing better than to think deeply about their customers’ needs while drinking latte macchiatos in trendy meeting rooms.

That’s one of the biggest issues when it comes to being customer-centric. In many companies the idea of the customer is based on a fantasy. And not reality.

Mapping customer journeys during brainstorm-sessions, creating personas in co-creation workshops… It’s all bullshit if you don’t actually involve your customers.

(Insider tip: if you ever want to get under our skin, definitely talk to us about personas.)

Without ongoing, in-depth customer research you cannot be customer-centered.

Don’t hide behind tools and numbers 

Even organizations that use a variety of tools to understand their customer, don’t necessarily understand what it is really about. All that data from Google Analytics, click-heat maps, and A/B-tests will tell you something. But none of it will be really in-depth.

Understanding your customer by just looking at numbers on your screen is really hard.

You have to know which words trigger your customers.
All that data won’t tell you which words trigger your customers. All those numbers will leave you wondering why. Why do people become customers? Why do they quit?

And you need all of that knowledge:

• To write product pages that convince your visitors to become customers.
• To write your Google Ads and other advertisements in such a way that they resonate with your target audience.
• To make your Google search results stand out so that people will click on your page, even if you’re not the first result.

Do you really want to become customer-centric? Step outside of your marketing bubble. 

The solution? Leave your meeting room and go outside! Burst your marketing bubble and talk to your customers.

Engage them one on one. Have a real conversation.

Or do a round of user tests.

And when you add that information to what you’ve already learned from a few choice surveys on your website, a whole new world will likely open up for you. Your customer’s world.

That’s what good user research is all about.

In this video I explain the case of a company that has been active in the travel industry for 60 years, and how they have come to completely new insights thanks to user research.

Because that really is the biggest mistake a company can make: assuming things are obvious. “We’ve been doing this for years and nobody’s complained about it.” “Our customers think this is super convenient.”

Until you really research it and discover that what you’ve been doing for years, can be done so much better. And customers aren’t actually as satisfied as they say they are.

2. Break down the silos in your company: unite behind a common goal

When you’re working with internal teams who all have different goals, you can’t be a customer-centered company.

Silos kill companies. But that problem goes beyond these tips on customer-centricity.

Start by tearing down the walls within your digital team. Because I am sure they’re there. Whether you’re working with internal or external staff.

The cause of friction between different departments or people within digital teams is that they often have different goals.

• SEO has to do well in Google.
• SEA / PPC has to ensure that the advertisements bring traffic to the website.
• UX and design have to ensure that the website looks good.
• Copywriters need to write nice sounding copy.
• CRO has to ensure that leads and sales increase.

Of course, that’s pretty much asking for trouble.

You fix it by giving everyone the same common goal. For example: generate more sales and more happy customers. And of course you should link that to target numbers.

This way you ensure that:

• The SEO team primarily wants to score with the right pages. The pages that actually drive sales.
• SEA brings the right people to the website. The people who are potential customers.
• Your designers concentrate on design that converts instead of frills and fancies and fun trends
• Copywriters write customer-oriented, converting copy
• CRO can hang back in their chair because the rest of the team knows what to do. ?

3. Don’t use dirty sales-tricks. Make your customers happy.

There are many ways to trick people into becoming customers.

On the surface, you might think there’s nothing wrong with that. Influencing people to make a purchase is something that vendors and salesmen have been doing for centuries.

But you have to take care not to revert to dirty tricks. Don’t make your customers feel like you’ve tricked them into a purchase. Because in the long run, that’s going to backfire big time.

It may sound fluffy, but customer happiness really is at the core of what makes businesses successful.

Happy and satisfied customers advertise your brand for free. They’re the best ambassadors for your brand. Much better than any of those influencers.

Give your visitors and customers what they expect. Then they’ll give you what you want: their business, loyalty, and customer satisfaction.

Happy customers come back for more. And loyal customers spend more money with you.

Customers who have big and small frustrations about your brand are far less loyal. And they will swiftly transfer their loyalty to any new player on the market who takes away the frustrations that you don’t see (anymore).

Because that is the most important reason why companies suddenly lose market share or even go bankrupt. And that’s why it’s essential that you know what frustrates your customers, and what makes them happy.

It’s also why at AGConsult we always start with qualitative and quantitative customer research.

Conversion optimization is not just about fiddling around with your website. We deal with all the online and offline aspects that impact customer satisfaction. To help your business grow.

4. Design is important. Design trends are not.

Design is incredibly important. The core design of a website, the building blocks and the way they function, all determine the success of your website.

Or failure.

But design is not everything.

At least as important is the content.

A beautiful website full of bullshit content will never be an e-commerce success.

Your website is not a work of art. A website is made to be used. It’s not something that people come just to look at and admire.

A website is not a work of art. A website exists to be used. Not just to look at. That’s why good UX and content are at least as important as the graphic design.

That’s why your website has to be useful and user friendly. If your website isn’t customer-centric, it won’t perform well.

So once your graphic design is alright, it’s alright. And you shouldn’t blindly jump onto the newest design trends. They mostly cost a lot of money, and they don’t generate any real value.

Because design trends are about the outer layer of the design. And that kind of visual finery rarely makes the difference.

Even more amazing: many web design trends are damaging to your revenue and your sales.

(Before all the designers start freaking out: I am not saying that design is visual finery. Read the whole tip again. But calmly.)

Remember that happy customer!

5. Find the best design for your brand

If it’s about the outer layer of the design, I’ve noticed that many companies refer to Apple and other fancy brands. That’s the style they love.

Who cares. If you’re Suzuki, don’t copy the BMW website. Because you’re not BMW. (Just so you know: we’ve worked with both brands.)

You have to find a design that works well for your website and your target audience. Because that’s also a part of customer-centricity.

That means you should probably look at your design with less personal feelings. And approach the situation from the perspective of your customers.

Because yes, your design can be measured and AB-tested as well. The design of Booking.com works perfectly for them. But that doesn’t mean you can copy it on over to a brand like Marriot. Or vice versa.

My friend Lukas Vermeer, Head of Experimentation at Booking.com, once told me there are many designers on the web who are making alternative versions of Booking.com pages. Because they feel like the Booking.com design is really basic, and that it doesn’t radiate that holiday-feel.

And do you know what the folks over at Booking.com do?

They A/B test those alternative designs. And not once has the alternative “prettier” design done better.

It might look better. But it functions worse.

For Booking.com.

So if you really want to be customer-oriented: test your designs and find the design which works best for your brand.

6. Break the redesign cycle. Optimize continuously.

Many companies have a new website made every 3-5 years. Because the last one, well, got old.

But there’s no business reasoning behind that. Let alone any research-based backing.

That’s why a new website rarely sells better than the previous design. 

Do you know why it doesn’t?

Because it is usually the content and structure of the website that are the problem. While many website redesigns focus too much on the outer layer: the visual finery. Not on what’s really wrong.

That’s why the redesign-cycle is a bad idea.

That’s why internet giants like Amazon, Booking.com, Coolblue, Zalando and the like have never done a total redesign.

They continuously improve their website. Every day they make it a little better. Based on research and A/B-tests.

And that works much better than what you’re probably doing: putting a new website online every few years. Which is usually based on trends and gut feeling.

So, it’s time to look at the process behind the success of these companies. And there is hope yet: because in the end, they started small too.

Watch out: if your website sucks donkey b***s, you might need one more redesign. But it’ll be a redesign that primarily targets the content and structure of your website.

Like we did recently for Ghent University.

7. Speak your customers’ language. Literally.

Do you remember my first tip?

Talk to your customers.

Or better yet: ask the right questions, and then listen. You can do that in a real-life conversation, a phone call or a good online survey.

• Why do they shop at your store?
• Why don’t they?
• What do they love?
• What is the 1 thing that they would like to see differently?
• What stops them from becoming customers?

Doing this type of research won’t just help you to improve your product or services offering and your marketing.

Your customers are literally whispering the copy of your website into your ears.

Yes: use the words and phrases that your customers are using. This is the input for your customer-centered copy.

By using the words and language of your customers, it becomes a lot easier to conquer their hearts and minds. Because they recognize themselves in what you’re saying.

Use your customers’ language in your copy. That makes it easier to conquer their hearts and minds. Because they recognize themselves.

This is a big issue with many companies. There’s a huge gap between the terminology and language of the company and that of their customers.

Companies like to boast. They like to use fancy words and talk about how amazing they are.

But nobody likes a show-off.

And more importantly: customers would never use those words. And so they don’t recognize themselves in what you’re saying.

That has to change. You can get more tips for copy that’ll conquer the hearts and minds of your customers in our in-person training on writing for the web.

The most important tip to become more customer-centered?

Listen to your customers and throw your ego overboard. Only then can you become really customer-centric.

And by continually working on your website and marketing, of course. 😉

Do you have any tips? Or experiences you’d like to share?
Please let us know in the comments!