Some 450 years ago, Nicolaus Copernicus concluded that the Sun (and not the Earth) is at the center of our solar system. Also, the Earth revolves around the Sun, not the other way around. The proclamation caused quite a stir back in the day, but that’s what paradigm shifts tend to do.

Today, we are facing another Copernican revolution: customers are (or should be!) at the center of brands, their products, services or solutions. And not the other way around.

A business should revolve around its customers. Customers shouldn’t revolve around a business, or by extension, its products or services. It’s the Customer Journey Revolution. Like the Copernican Revolution, it will undoubtedly ripple well into the future. Many organizations will need to evolve if they wish to stay relevant in their consumers’ hearts and minds. Many businesses already feel the burn from not being customer-centric enough. The last decade saw Kodak, Toys R Us, Blockbuster Video, Abercrombie & Fitch (among a SCORE of other retail outlets) all suffer for observing an ‘Operational Excellence’ rather than a ‘customer-centric’ strategy. Operational Excellence strategies make sense; they lower costs and increase efficiencies. But therein lies a very serious downside: when your eyes are only focused on the organization, your ass is facing the customer.

There are several benefits for your organization to implement more consumer-centric principles and establish a consumer-centric culture. And there’s even more good news: it needn’t be a difficult or time-intensive process!

In a series of blogposts, we will unpack the Customer Journey Revolution and look at the finer details highlighted in our Customer Experience Revolution bookzine. We will look at the three ingredients that, if deployed correctly, will make your venture all the more successful. They will help you become a truly customer-centric organization:

1. Extreme Customer Obsession

Knowing your consumer is nice. Yet it’s infinitely more important to act on that understanding. If not done on the back of a sound strategy, you might end up improving or changing the wrong facet of your business.

2. Extreme Speed

In this fast-paced environment, you have to act on your understanding of the consumer… and you have to act quickly! When defining your Customer Experience program, you will eventually need a practice and process for detecting, innovating, and implementing relevant experiences. And you have to be swift in your approach. Speed and agility are key.

3. Extreme Creativity

When it comes to developing your customer experience strategy, your technology and your data are your enablers. However, your creativity is your driver. If you want to excel, you have to be creative.

What does it mean to be a truly customer-centric organization? Simply put, it’s developing and executing a value proposition with the consumer at the center. Customer centricity means offering a product, solution, process or approach that is designed to maximize the positive impact on the customer.

Curious on what this new Copernican brand revolution entails? Download your free copy of our Customer Experience Revolution bookzine.