The 8 attributes that prove companies to be customer-obsessed

When a company's cross-organizational teams focus on what their customers need and want, and its management puts customer obsession first and foremost, it can be referred to as a customer-obsessed business. When the desired and constant loop works, the one where customers give feedback to companies which is followed by the companies analyzing such data and acting upon it, businesses can look forward to growth, greater revenues, and more happy customers.

Customer-obsessed companies never stop tracking and figuring out what their customers say about them if they wish to maintain and even improve their performances. Once each team within an organization analyses its customer data, the company can make better brand business decisions, which are aligned with the value customers are looking for.

The ROI of customer-obsessed companies can be enormous, as companies can see their revenues and profits go up, enjoy increasing retention and repeat purchases, enlarge their customer base and keep their existing customers happy. However, companies with tens of thousands of customers must use artificial intelligence tools to collect their online conversations and comments. Gathering such customer experience data from many different online platforms can then be translated into actionable insights for companies. A customer-obsessed company can gain more business value from such data tracking and analysis and lead its market over other brands.

8 Factors that determine whether brands are showing their customer-obsession

Organizations with customer-obsessed qualities have a unique business model which revolves entirely around the customer. True customer obsession is defined by several factors. Simply put, such companies prioritize customer needs and wants, and go above and beyond to give customers more value in every possible way. Added value can be given through a company's exceptional customer success services, special marketing offers and sales discounts, and through great products.

There are 8 factors that determine whether brands are showing their customer obsession.

1. Popular brands with customers that carry a high-recognition factor

Products that connect with customers, and sell a lot, become brands. The fact that they become popular and are well-known, determines that the companies behind them must be doing something right. Therefore, customer-obsessed brands succeeded in finding the right ingredients to make products that many customers want. Most organizations don't sit on their laurels, and constantly keep improving their products in order to maintain customer satisfaction.

2. Successful customer retention and low churn rate (empowering the point of interaction with them)

Customer-obsessed companies collect feedback regularly and apply it to improve their brands. By delighting existing customers with excellent products, businesses prevent them from churning. Customer data from existing customers can also serve to attract new customers, thus increasing the customer base. By tracking customer feedback and making customer-focused decisions based on such data, businesses increase the value to the customer and thus prioritize customer retention.

3. Great sales improvements

Huge sales volumes guarantee revenue growth, based on repeat purchases, as well as spreading the word for new customers to join in. With great sales improvements, the brand proves its customer obsession.

4. Increasing the brand’s customer base

Customer obsession also manages to increase the number of customers using it. Customer experience must be successful, as determined by more and more consumers using or buying the brand.

5. Personalizing the brand’s relationship with customers

By listening to customers and improving their products and services, businesses can personalize their brand relationship with their clients. Also, when organizations manage to answer customers directly, responding either to their online mentions or to their emails, they show customers that they care not only about their opinions but also about them.

6. Deep understanding of customer needs and wants

A customer-obsessed organization makes sure that it fully understands what the customer needs, and then carries such knowledge into improving its products and services. Businesses that manage to solve customer problems show that they care about their clients. They increase the chance that the customer's perspective about their brands will be positive, turning buyers into loyal customers.

7. Cross-organization consistent efforts of working for the customer (responding to them)

Customer obsession describes organizations that give great products (the product team's responsibility) but also great customer service. The customer service team fills an important role in the customer experience as they solve problems regarding products. Support options require handling purchased products, giving refunds where necessary, and approaching customers in a cordial manner. Businesses constantly improving their customer service also increase the value to the customer, as shoppers feel that the business relationship with them didn't end when they bought the product.

8. Maintaining transparency

Businesses who find customer obsession important also maintain a transparent relationship with their customers. That usually means to give true and honest information about their products and operation, to treat buyers fairly and, if they did something wrong, to fix things and even apologize. Customer perception of business transparency can contribute a lot to its brand sentiment and to the improvement of the buyer's journey and service.

Data-driven decisions that maintain brands’ customer-obsession

AI-powered data-driven decisions can take place once customer feedback is tracked and analyzed. Organizations dealing with millions of clients must use such AI data tools in order to quickly collect the data and analyze it for maintaining their customer obsession and success with the products they sell to their clients.

• Non-stop feedback tracking and analysis

One important business goal for every organization is to continuously listen to what its clients have to say. Tracking and analyzing such comments about the customer experience can lead to making better business decisions and to maintaining the buyer's journey for repeat purchases.

• Turning many different opinions into a clear customer voice

Millions of customer comments collected make up for unstructured data. The AI then structures the qualitative feedback, thus creating a customer's clear voice. Comments can be divided into clusters or categories, and then every organization can prioritize its actions in accordance with the volumes of each such category.

• Sharing customer feedback data across all teams

Employees in every team of an organization must receive the feedback data collected and analyzed from what each customer has to say. Once teams receive the appropriate customer data for their needs, they can have the right tools to measure and improve their tasks in relation to the customer experience.

• Evaluating feedback data in real-time

Customer obsession describes organizations that treat their customer relationship as an ongoing journey. So the process of tracking and analyzing their feedback happens in real-time, all the time. Sentiments may change due to changing factors within a market, so staying close to what they have to say and responding quickly can maintain a customer-focused effort and an advantage over the competition.

• Keeping an eye on competitors

Businesses are able to track and analyze their competitors' customer feedback. Knowing what a business's rivals do and what their customers have to say about their products and service can help an organization make its next moves in the market.

• Maintaining flawless products and services (by also fixing quickly)

Once products leave their factories and once a business offers a service for its customer base, the company which made them is looking for a perfect value for its clients. However, flaws in products or bugs in an online service may occur, and it is up to the company to learn about such problems and fix them quickly. Feedback from any customer can assist in evaluating and fixing such issues.

Leading by their customer-obsession: Netflix and Ikea

Many leading brands are known as customer-centric companies. Two leading examples of organizations with a great customer focus and a definite customer obsession are Netflix and Ikea. These two top brands prove their deep understanding of what it means to be customer-obsessed. There is no end to their research of customer experience and their entire business model revolves around their millions of clients.

Netflix turned from a limited DVD service, offered through video stores, to the world-leading streaming service of movies and other televised content. Showing their customer obsession, once they realized that every customer has different tastes and needs, Netflix began offering a personal AI recommendation system as well as multiple subscription plan options.

Another customer-obsessed company, Ikea, the Swedish Home retailer, is committed to meeting the needs of its clients at every point and serving them with a great customer experience. Their shops are designed with maximum ease of use, their products are reasonably priced and are fairly easy to construct, and their customer service teams and other engaged employees help shoppers with whatever they need. Their digital app allows buyers to virtual place, true-to-scale 3D models, in their own homes, among other features.

By covering every customer aspect of their business, these two brands show just how much customer obsession serves an important part of their business. Both are constantly improving their service, increasing retention, and continuously adding new features to their business offerings. Their customer-obsessed qualities of delighting existing and new clients show by their loyal customer base. Each company's culture shows just how their customer obsession is great.

Affogata enables companies to be obsessed with customers

Affogata connects businesses with what their clients are saying about their brands and supplies businesses with crucial key feedback data points. Such customer data serves organizations with actionable insights, proving just how important are the principles of customer-obsessed companies to them. Every team within the organization is able to receive its own specific data, be it marketing, customer success, sales, or product, and use such analysis to improve its every business goal. Affogata's all-in-one platform also allows the customer success department to respond to every comment, online mention, or customer email, and show clients just how the company values the personal touch with its clients.