How do you make important business decisions?
Do you look at your financial statements or turn to your customers for feedback?
We try to do the latter. Many would call that insane from a business standpoint, but we beg to differ.
At Undrdog, customers come first.
We want to help your businesses thrive and strengthen our relationships through every choice we make.
Customer Focus Is More Than Just A Phrase
These days, expectations from businesses are higher than ever before.
There are so many choices and alternatives on the market for any product or service out there. People simply don’t ever have to do business with companies that don’t care about them. Instead, they’re looking for authentic brands that are willing to accommodate their needs every step of the way.
Because of this, focusing primarily on sales isn’t an option for businesses anymore. Nor is thinking only about the business and what it needs to grow and be profitable.
That’s where customer focus comes in.
Customer focus is a long-term strategy that puts customers at the center of business decision-making. This approach can even be considered a mindset or philosophy. One that looks at a company from customers’ perspective, aiming to align business processes with their goals and expectations.
Businesses that are truly customer-focused consider how their decisions impact customers first, as opposed to focusing on profits or products and services. These companies foster a culture in which all departments work towards the same goal - customer success.
And since business success naturally depends on the success of its customers: it’s a win-win situation!
Focusing on customers turns an average company into a great one.
You can recognize customer-focused brands through excellent customer service, readily available support, listening to and implementing customer feedback, and developing the best solutions for customers rather than the best products in general, among other things.
Another important factor that characterizes customer-focused companies is the shift from selling to customers to actually helping. This means pulling away from traditional “push” sales techniques. Instead, these businesses adopt a more collaborative approach that leads to better outcomes for both parties.
In this new approach, it’s not about closing the sale.
It’s about helping people make the right choice for them, even if that choice isn’t your solution.
When you have a customer-focused perspective, making a sale isn’t always a win, and not making one isn’t necessarily a loss. The reality is, if you sell someone a product that doesn’t meet their needs and expectations, you disappoint them, losing their trust.
On the other hand, if you advise a customer not to purchase your solution if it’s not the best fit for them, you’re building a relationship - one that leaves the door open for future sales.
Still don’t think that putting customers helps businesses succeed?
Take a closer look at some of the benefits this approach offers!
The Benefits of Putting Customers First
Making your business customer-focused means it will truly bring value to people, make their lives easier and more enjoyable. If that doesn’t make you feel good about yourself, I don’t know what will!
Personal benefits aside, there are plenty of business advantages of the customer-first mindset.
Trust
Today’s consumers are savvy, and they’re going to get even savvier as time goes by.
They see right through brands that want to take advantage of them. But they also see when a business goes the extra mile to understand their unique situation and help them get from where they are to where they want to be. This builds trust, and customer trust makes all the difference.
While relationships between businesses and customers are quite different from interpersonal connections, the core foundation of both is trust. In 2019, 81% of consumers said that they need to be able to trust a brand before they buy from it.
What this means is that customers are not going to spend their hard-earned money on a company they don’t trust. But it also means they are willing to reward businesses they do trust.
Loyalty
Customer trust drives customer loyalty, and loyal customers are extremely valuable.
They are a massive source of repeat revenue and are most inclined to become brand advocates and ambassadors.
Brand advocates are those who happily recommend your brand’s products or services to their family members, friends, and just about anyone who asks. They help your business leverage the power of word-of-mouth marketing - which is much more effective than traditional advertising!
Revenue
Research shows that customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable compared to those not focused on the customer.
Why?
Because these businesses stand out from the crowd. Their customer-first philosophy is a clear differentiator in the eyes of consumers.
More importantly, customer-focused companies have a strong customer base.
When you look at the numbers, acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining an existing one. Hence, increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits anywhere from 25-95%. On top of that, existing customers can start generating more revenue through upsells and cross-sells.
Opportunities
When you listen to your customers and acknowledge their experiences and complaints with empathy, you start to see new business opportunities.
Whether it’s as simple as bundling up certain products/services, more complex like building a new product/service, or even transformative like pivoting to a completely different business model, understanding your customers opens the doors for growth.
Are Brands Truly Customer-Focused?
Unfortunately, there is a significant gap in the way customers and businesses perceive how customer-focused a brand is.
According to Zendesk’s research, while 60% of companies give themselves high marks for service, 68% of customers say there’s room for improvement.
Thankfully, becoming more customer-focused isn’t that hard. It doesn’t require complex skills or expensive tools. All it takes is the dedication to deliver what your customers need.
How We Stay Customer-Focused
Every customer-centric brand needs to make sure that everything they do is centered around the customer’s best interests. From our experience, this is fairly simple when the business is small. But as it grows, it gets harder and harder to scale.
Still, there are ways to grow a business and keep customers in the driver’s seat.
Gathering Feedback
One such strategy that we employ is directly asking for feedback. It’s the quickest way to get insights from the people that matter most to our business - our customers.
According to research, 53% of shoppers believe their feedback doesn't go to anyone who can actually act on it.
Directly asking for feedback enables us to see beyond the metrics and truly understand which parts of the customer experience need our attention. And whether the feedback we receive is positive or negative, it’s certainly very valuable!
Daily Interaction
Another thing we noticed is that as the company grows, so grows the distance between us and our customers.
When Undrdog was just two people, we were constantly interacting with you guys - explaining the installation process, dealing with shipping mishaps, giving out business advice, etc. We still do all that, but it has become increasingly hard with our customer base expanding.
To ensure we stay hands-on, in touch with our community, we’re always looking for ways to shrink the distance between us and our customers. Because of that, we’re always available to you via phone, email, and in our Facebook Group, Undrdog Coating Professionals.
Poor Customer Service Catches Up With You
We want to take a moment here to talk about how customer service fits into the customer-centric business model we’re trying to build.
The significance of high-quality customer service is hard to overstate. Here are a couple of stats that demonstrate just how important it is for today’s businesses:
93% of customers will likely make repeat purchases with companies that offer excellent customer service.
90% of Americans use customer service as a factor in deciding whether or not to do business with a company.
89% of consumers are more likely to make another purchase after a positive customer service experience.
around 76% of consumers say they would rather do business with a competitor after more than one bad experience.
58% of American consumers will switch companies because of poor customer service.
Therefore, it’s incredibly important for us that the Undrdog customer support team shares our values and is committed to our mission.
But customer service and positive customer experience aren’t responsibilities that fall only on them. They’re the responsibility of all our employees and the business as a whole.
That’s why we keep our marketing honest, our pricing fair, our operations transparent, our communication channels open, and our products top-quality.
To Sum Up
Undrdog started out as a customer-first company, driven by relationships rather than profits - and we intend to keep it that way.
Because of that philosophy, we’re happy to accommodate all your needs, hear your ideas and suggestions, and fix any issues you may have. We promise never to ignore you and to always own up to our mistakes.
The thing is, mistakes will happen.
But we believe it’s not about making or not making mistakes. It’s about how you handle them.
So if you have a problem - just reach out! We will solve it. Refund it. Send you a new product. Whatever it takes. No questions asked, no holds barred, no ifs, no buts.
