New Needs, and a New Playbook: Why Putting Your Customers First is Key to Growing Global Business

Business Transformation. It’s a term that’s often thrown around boardrooms, gatherings of global leaders, and dinner tables. So much so that there are entire departments dedicated to how a business can pivot its strategy to be the most cutting-edge. Surprisingly, in a rush to improve, a lot of us are forgetting to listen to our customers along the way.

As customised human experiences shape the new normal in tech, companies have a tremendous opportunity to put their users front and centre, and acknowledge their innate humanness. One of the fastest ways companies can repel customers is through the way they interact. Too many companies are sticking to a clunky, old-fashioned approach to customer service, with corporate jargon and hierarchies that make it difficult to ever speak with a human.

Now, it’s your opportunity to show that you can carry your business into the next era of human-led, tech-powered business transformation.

Speaking to your people on the ground combats a siloed mentality

It can be easy to fall into the trap of trying to keep up with the Joneses. Your team is likely facing a heightened sense of urgency around transformation, and you might struggle to keep up with an artificial timeline. Sometimes, organisations transform for the sake of transforming or make digital products for the sake of being digital. Before you know it, you’re chasing legal approval. Departmental feedback. The consumer has fallen to the bottom of the ladder. You find yourself squeezing a square peg into a round hole with teams focusing on delivering a solution that customers were never looking for in the first place.

All of which means we need to look at things differently. International branding and behavioral expert Martin Lindstrom spells it out as “a new market, new needs, and a new playbook.”

The pandemic proved to be a watershed moment as millions of people deprived of human connection decided to demand better. It sounds cliché, but we really are facing unprecedented changes that have accelerated shifts in social behaviour. Consumers have changed significantly over the past two years. The concept of empathy and human interaction dissipated over the peak of COVID-19. We still don’t know all the long-lasting effects of extended isolation and the aftermath of other pandemic practices on human behaviour. Taking this into consideration, we need to pay extra attention to social listening and human-centred research so we can learn about changes to our audiences.

Working with customer experience first improves your offering

The difference between brand experiences that audiences label as “good” versus “great”, are those which go the extra mile by incorporating a human dimension, as well as numbers. We’ve got to connect on a more elevated level with our now smarter consumers. And more importantly, it’s about taking in humans in their real-life contexts. As Lindstrom says, “If you want to study animals, don’t go to the zoo. Go to the Amazon.”

A proven way of making things simpler is by starting with the user, and their needs, before the technology and end-product itself. The founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, famously spent more time on the ground, behind the cashier of his retail stores, in an attempt to deeply understand his customers. It’s a bit of a contradiction to your traditional view of an executive looking out from an ivory tower. This empathetic approach has ultimately made IKEA the universal success story it is today.

In terms of applying this customer-centric approach to your own workflow, consider talking to even five customers one-on-one. It will open doors to learning more about your target audience. That will justify your brand’s entire purpose, as you’ll quickly discover something that no amount of data can explain. Bottom line – humans are inherently irrational. And that’s something to celebrate and support, not to deny.

Your company is more likely to succeed with a human-led strategy

Humans don’t want to be led on a wild goose chase. When things turn pear-shaped, we simply want another human to recognise the issue, and provide fair compensation in a timely manner. Not in 5-10 business days. Less so not in 8-10 weeks (the average time for airlines to process refunds post-pandemic).

Undertaking transformation can be as uncomplicated as reminding your audience you are there for them. You can’t talk about brand products or services, without addressing the emotions behind them. It’s an exciting time to stand out as a business or service who can tell a story that resonates. Take into account one of the many timeless Darwinian quotes, “it is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the more intelligent, but the ones most adaptable to change.”

Sometimes we simply forget about the customer. Instead, try starting out with their experience first, and working backwards towards the technology. Steve Jobs knew it. Bob Eckhart also championed storytelling in business. It’s a process which involves deep customer listening. Once you inevitably extract insights from those one-on-one interactions, you can apply your learnings to the shared purpose of your business. That encompasses the customer experience. Then, you can link it to your brand.

Now is the time to prioritise your customers

Companies that understand the human-to-human connection and fully integrate it into their strategy are the ones that will connect with the customer, going from good to great. Consider your role in streamlining communications, so you can spend more time with customers the way they want you to connect with them. Technology should be there to help the customer make it feel worthy, not to make your business any more complex. Talk to a Twilio agent today about how you can implement empathetic listening tools into your business, and reward your customers. We can’t wait to see how you transform.