Teamleader Ebook Build Better Relationships

BUILDING BETTER RELATIONSHIPS:
CUSTOMER CENTRICITY
IN THE DIGITAL AGE
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1TABLE OF CONTENTS
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5
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CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS ARE RISING:
BECOME A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC BUSINESS
WHAT’S A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC
ORGANISATION ALL ABOUT?
WHY DIGITAL MATTERS IN BECOMING
A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC BUSINESS
THE IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING
THE DIGITAL CONSUMER
HALITO!’S JOURNEY TO A
CUSTOMER-CENTRIC BUSINESS
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7
10
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WORD OF THANKS
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CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS
ARE RISING: BECOME A
CUSTOMER-CENTRIC BUSINESS
Contrary to popular belief, customer centricity isn’t just another buzzword. The customer has always
been king, but is gaining more and more power every day. With digitisation on the rise, customers
demand excellent services - any place, any time.
How can you meet your customers’ expectations and become a more customer-centric organisation?
In this ebook, you’ll learn all about what it takes. Read on, and discover:
• WHAT A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC ORGANISATION IS ALL ABOUT
We’ll let you in on the secrets of truly customer-centric companies. In fact,
to become one, you don’t need to be a large enterprise. We explain how an
improved customer experience can benefit your business as much as any
other.
• WHY SHOULD SMES BECOME MORE CUSTOMER-CENTRIC?
Customers are more digital every day, so you need to meet your customers
online too and improve your digital customer experience. Learn how you
can offer them a single, seamless experience and how small changes can
make a world of difference to become more customer-centric.
• HOW A DIGITAL STRATEGY CAN BUILD A BETTER CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
Gerrie Smits, an authority on understanding the digital consumer and
developing a digital strategy, explains how small businesses should react to
digital trends. “Lots of companies still start from the ‘what’ - their product. If
you can get them to think about the ‘why’, and really understand what their
product or service means to customers, you get vastly different strategies,
with vastly different results. Start from your customers’ needs, and go from
there.”
• HALITO!’S JOURNEY TO BECOME A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC BUSINESS
A strategy for customer-centricity is important, but it doesn’t mean anything
if you don’t put your words into action. Halito! is a company offering an
online event platform for guest registration and communication. In just one
year, the company managed to shift their approach from product-oriented
to customer-centric. Their focus? ‘The happy flow’: “things can’t be overly
complicated, simplicity and speed are essential.”

3
WHAT’S A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC
ORGANISATION ALL ABOUT?
Acquiring and retaining customers has become increasingly harder. Customer loyalty is massively at
stake. According to McKinsey, only 13% of all customers don’t shop around at all, while 87% actively
search for competitor information, and 58% actually purchase from a competitor instead.
Luckily, SMEs can turn the tide. Instead of primarily focusing on gaining new business, build long-term
relationships with existing customers and gain their loyalty. To do so, becoming a customer-centric
organisation is the way to move forward.
EVERY SINGLE EXPERIENCE WITH A BUSINESS
CAN MAKE OR BREAK A RELATIONSHIP
In this day and age, customers really are king - if only for the never-before-seen
pool of information they have access to, such as websites and social media
reviews. This makes customers feel empowered and fully in control of any
relationship with a business. A competitor is just a mouse click away. In fact,
89% of customers would stop doing business with a company after a bad
experience.
Customers demand an excellent product or service, not just from large
enterprises, but from small- and medium-sized companies too. If customers
encounter a negative experience with a business, such as poor, unfriendly
service, they’ll easily flock elsewhere. Plus, they won’t be afraid to share it
through social media or chat about it with family and friends.
To help you win, becoming a customer-centric business is the future.
A truly customer-centric company puts customers at the
forefront of everything they do.
⊲ In a customer-centric business, customers are your number one priority.
Without them, your business doesn’t mean much.
⊲ Customer-centric companies provide what their customers value the most,
without necessarily doing everything they want. Instead, they focus on what
matters.
4

WHA
3 ELEMENTS THAT MAKE FOR A CUSTOMER-
CENTRIC ORGANISATION
1
ENGAGE CUSTOMERS ON A REGULAR BASIS.
Frequently keep in touch so they know you care. By setting up regular checkins
with your customers (e.g. once every 3 months), they know they’re being
heard. For example, send loyal customers a message with a special discount or
offer to show appreciation. In addition, create useful content that addresses the
needs of your customers and include it in your periodic newsletters or publish it
on your blog.
2
KNOWING WHO YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE AND HOW YOU CAN BE OF
VALUE TO THEM.
It’s important to understand who your customers really are, what their interests
are, and why they’ve decided to do business with you. A customer-centric
business knows their customers in and out so you can better cater to their
needs. The easiest way to understand who your customers are, and what they
want is by simply asking them. Discover more on how to gather customer
feedback and measure customer satisfaction.
3
MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS.
As mentioned earlier, a customer-centric SME doesn’t do everything a customer
wants. It’s tempting to try, but you can’t do right for everyone, all the time. That’s
why you need to closely manage what customers expect from your business
early on. For example, clearly document your product or service: what’s the
best way to reach out to your business? What does your service consist of?
What’s the pricing like? Be consistent, honest and transparent in everything you
communicate. And carefully listen to your feedback channels to see if what you
do is still up to par with the expected customer experience.
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WHAT’S HOLDING SMALL BUSINESSES BACK
FROM INVESTING IN CUSTOMER CENTRICITY?
“I JUST NEED TO SELL, I DON’T NEED TO TRANSFORM MY BUSINESS.”
Acquiring new clientele is a key thing to survive, but “We need new customers!”
can’t be the only thing that’s top of mind. If you just focus on volume, and not on
the quality of your relationships, your customers likely won’t stay, and that will
ultimately cost you money. In reality, customer-centric companies are 60% more
profitable.
“I ALREADY KNOW WHO MY CUSTOMERS ARE AND WHAT THEY WANT.”
Think you’re already doing a great job? Don’t just assume so, because how
customers feel has a massive impact on whether they will buy from you or not.
According to McKinsey, 70% of buying experiences are based on how the
customer feels they are being treated. The only way to truly get your customers
is to talk to them, face-to-face if possible. You might be surprised by how open
they will be for a discussion.
“I NEED FAST ANSWERS, BUT I WILL PROBABLY ONLY SEE RESULTS IN
MONTHS.” SMEs don’t have time to waste, and employees often juggle many
responsibilities at once. That might shift attention a bit too much towards the
short term. However, the journey to a customer-centric business starts with
implementing bite-size and very attainable improvements. How do you find out
where to start? Again, speak to your customers face-to-face, you’ll probably be
able to write down 3 action points to start working on right away.
CUSTOMER CENTRICITY IS NO LONGER A NICE-TO-HAVE
Being a customer-centric business is necessary to
keep a competitive edge in often dynamic, fastmoving
markets. If everything starts and ends with
the customer, overwhelmingly positive experiences
can lead to long-lasting relationships which is
essential for healthy small- and medium-sized
businesses. So start to delight, grow and keep
your customer base today.
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4
WHY DIGITAL MATTERS
IN BECOMING A
CUSTOMER-CENTRIC BUSINESS
Today, it’s not about what’s your most important priority - but who: your customers. But why is being a
customer-centric business so utterly important? And what does digital have to do with it?
Being customer-centric means:
• More profitability
• Increased customer satisfaction
• A competitive advantage over competitors
• Increased customer loyalty
Unsurprisingly, this surge of customer centricity correlates with the hyperconnected
digital age we live in. As a result, even small companies have
to examine their digital efforts, combine them with a customer-centric
company culture and manage the customer experience top to bottom if
they want to stay in the game.
IMPROVING THE DIGITAL CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
Nowadays, customers want to find what they need quickly and easily.
According to Harvard Business Review, the most important factor to gain
customer loyalty is to reduce customer effort, so make it as simple as possible
for customers to reach out to you.
A website is now a standard go-to source for customers. 83% of customers
browse your website, and 70% even expect it to contain self-service
information. But they’ll want to engage with your company on multiple others
channels too, and expect a single, seamless experience across different
platforms.
Example: a customer might ask you a question through Facebook
Messenger. If the same customer calls you on the phone, he will expect
you to know all about the Messenger conversation.
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In the age of digitisation, small businesses have to adapt. Stakes
are high, as 86% of customers will pay more for a better customer
experience. Improving the digital customer experience is therefore
necessary to meet and exceed expectations. But what does that
actually mean?
A digital customer experience is the sum of all digital interactions
between a customer and a company and influences how customers
perceive your business.
HOW CAN SMES ENSURE A BETTER DIGITAL
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE?
1
CREATE A CUSTOMER-CENTRIC MINDSET.
When thinking about digital customer experience, culture outweighs
technology. Companies with the right technology still need to embrace a
customer-centric mindset. Of course, technology is an important basis for
building a better customer experience and helps you drive revenue and
growth. But shift your employees’ mindset so they start developing this
mentality too.
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CREATE A SUPERIOR EXPERIENCE EVERYWHERE.
Focus on improving the digital experience throughout all the steps a customer
goes through when considering, purchasing, using, and maintaining loyalty
to your product or service - also called the customer lifecycle. Investing the
majority of your resources in sales and marketing, while neglecting customer
service, retention, and engagement, is a losing bet. You should create superior
experiences during every encounter a customer has with your company, if you
want to make them truly happy.
As a small company, you might already have the edge over large corporations:
small businesses are known for providing a more personal customer
experience. Live up to those expectations and convince your clients every day
why they should stay with you.
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5 DIGITAL ESSENTIALS OF A CUSTOMER-
CENTRIC BUSINESS
To deliver this superior customer experience, focus on the following five things
which characterise every customer-centric business.
• FAST HELP
Consumers are very impatient online. Make sure your website loads quickly,
is easy to navigate and offers all the right information, so your consumers
don’t give up and leave. The same applies to answering questions or
complaints: try to respond as fast as possible. Having a system in place that
helps you follow up on communication with customers, could really help
improve your response time.
• BRAND CONSISTENCY
A customer’s impression of a brand is like a mosaic, made up of different,
individual touch points. The overall perception has a big influence on
customer loyalty, convincing customers to stay if you provide a consistent
digital experience.
• RELIABILITY
Customers don’t want to repeat themselves over and over again when
they’re interacting with you through different channels. In fact, Accenture
claims that 89% of customers get frustrated if they have to reiterate over and
over again. Use software to support you, tracking all interactions and tying
them together across all channels.
• MEASURING TO IMPROVE
Measure how your customers feel about your business to find opportunities
for improvement. Don’t assume your customers will proactively inform you if
they had a rather negative experience. Customers rarely find the time for it,
and by the time they express their dissatisfaction, it’s already too late.
Measuring customer satisfaction is easy: learn which strategies you can use
• RECOGNISING VALUABLE CUSTOMERS
Truly customer-centric organisations identify their most valuable customers
and ensure they are (and stay) satisfied, by personalising their messaging,
following up on them flawlessly and offering proactive support.
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5
THE IMPORTANCE
OF UNDERSTANDING
THE DIGITAL CONSUMER
As said earlier, the way in which customers interact with businesses continues to evolve. Digital
strategy consultant Gerrie Smits believes businesses should focus on truly understanding their
customer - above all else.
Keynote speaker and digital strategist, Gerrie Smits, has over 20 years of experience in industries
disrupted by the internet, and is a hands-on expert in dealing with the impact of technology on all
sorts of businesses, products and most importantly: people.
GERRIE SMITS’ 6 TAKEAWAYS TO DEVELOP A
DIGITAL CUSTOMER-CENTRIC STRATEGY
1
THINK ABOUT ‘WHY’ YOUR COMPANY EXISTS
Smits explains that any business that fails to embrace customer centricity today,
will fail altogether. “Lots of companies still start from the ‘what’ - their product.
But you need to think about the ‘why’, and really understand what your product
or service means to customers, and you’ll get a greatly different strategy with
different results. Start from your customers’ needs, and go from there.”
“To be able to truly embrace customer centricity, start from
your customers’ needs, and go from there.”
“A good quote in that respect: Every team needs to have a customer. If you
don’t have a customer in mind, you can’t know what you’re working for. A
customer could be multiple people - even within your organisation - but it’s
such a simple, fundamental insight. If you, your team and other departments
don’t know what you’re working for, why bother?”
As a framework, many of Smits’ customers start to embrace ‘Design Thinking’,
which helps to understand and pursue innovation - in ways that contribute to
organic growth, and add real value to your customers. “The fact that it’s on the
radar of many major corporates clearly means a shift is taking place.”
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2
HIRE PEOPLE WITH EMPATHY
As Smits puts it, “today’s shift towards a digital business also affects other
aspects of your company. Take HR strategy, for instance. In an increasingly
digital world, SMEs need to understand what their customers desire. And to
help your team figure out what that is, you’ll also need new hiring criteria.”
“Empathy allows us to experience and understand what
customers want.”
People who master listening and responding with empathy perform better in
coaching, engaging others, planning and organising, and decision-making. Yet
empathy is on the decline for most businesses: with advancing technology, it
has become standard practice to send automated emails or texts instead.
“Empathy really is the most important skill to be successful. It allows us to
experience and understand what customers want, the struggles they deal with
and the added value they are looking for.” By placing the customer at the heart
of what we do - e.g. by creating Buyer Personas, adding customer touch points
- we are better positioned to respond to their needs, including those that are
unknown or unarticulated.
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KEEP UP WITH (TECHNOLOGY) TRENDS
“Businesses should understand where things are going. What is happening
today, and how will this affect my customers? If it turns out that at a certain
point, your customer expects things to be automated and machine learning is
the best technology for them - how will you react as an SME?”
“Businesses should catch the COD: the Characteristic of
Digital.”
Businesses should be aware of trends, “Or as I like to call it, ‘catch the COD’
(Characteristic of Digital). You need to understand why things are becoming
more important, the underlying motive of customers. Take chatbots - they’re
efficient, and help people who don’t like making phone calls. They allow
customers to contact you through different channels. It will be the clue
to success for businesses, however small or large, to understand which
technology will be fit for whom, and which need it will solve.”
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4
BUILD AND MAINTAIN CUSTOMER LOYALTY BY COMBINING DIGITAL
WITH HUMAN
If you look at the underlying motives of customers today, one thing stands out:
people want a relevant, personal experience. “That’s also the reason face-toface
contact still works like a charm. But spending 30 minutes talking to each
customer also has a downside: scalability.”
“Digital solutions nowadays can mimic a personal approach in
a scalable way.”
But the digital and the personal approach are not polar opposites. Data can be
used to segment your customer base, personalise the customer experience...
For example, by identifying your loyal customers, you can send them a
personal thank-you card. “Nowadays digital solutions mimic the same personal
approach, while being scalable at the same time.”
“Sometimes you can convince someone of your story by sending an automated
series of emails. Sometimes you’ll need to talk to a potential customer
personally for 30 minutes. I believe businesses who are able to combine those
two seamlessly - the digital and human aspect - will have more chances of
success.”
5
DON’T BE AFRAID TO CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO
Businesses should dare to question themselves. “Don’t be afraid to challenge
the status quo. What works today, might not work tomorrow. How will you - and
your business - adapt to this ever-changing reality?” Social media presence
is one of those things. The way businesses use social media today might
drastically change over the years to come. And what works for the majority,
might simply not work for you - or vice versa.
“You need to figure out where you’re going, but dare to be
agile.”
That’s the mindset any type of SME should have today. Don’t think you’re right,
by default. “You need to figure out where you’re going of course, and stick to
the plan, but dare to be agile. Know who your customer is, and don’t be afraid
to follow a trend or evolution as you go along.”
The biggest challenge for SMEs is understanding digital consumers: “don’t think
technology will be the answer to everything without any effort from your side.
Why worry about your social presence if you don’t understand why people are
on social media in the first place? Who are your customers, why are they buying
my product, and how is that process changing? What impact will technology
have on my relation with existing customers? Or new customers in the next 3 to
5 years?”
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6
“PRODUCT FIRST, EVERYTHING ELSE COMES LATER” ISN’T A VALID
APPROACH
“It has never been easier to launch a new product or business, and with the
fierce competition in every industry, you’ll instantly lose an edge if you don’t
put your customer first. In the age of digital consumers, competitors that don’t
necessarily offer a superior product, but that do focus on customer centricity,
will quickly take your place.”
“If you don’t start from customer data or market research, your
offer might be a prototype instead of something marketable.”
“If your product or service is completely aligned with the market requirements,
great. But SMEs and start-ups: if you don’t start from customer data or market
research, chances are your offer will be more of a prototype instead of
something marketable.”
“Starting from your product and assuming it’s the right answer is simply
dangerous. If you don’t know your customer wants user-friendliness, you won’t
do anything about it either. You’ll always start from your own version of the truth
- which will inevitably render you less competitive in the long run.”
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EMBRACING THE
DIGITAL CONSUMER
THE
FACTS
90%
71%
45%
92%
72%
of retail shoppers use
a digital device while
shopping in-store.
of consumers use a
digital device before
going shopping.
of companies have limited to no
understanding of how customers
interact with them digitally.
of people trust
recommendations from
individuals they know.
of consumers trust online
reviews as much as
personal recommendations.
(Source: Marketingprofs.com)
(Source: McKinsey)
(Source: Moderncomment.com)
Better Customer Experience leads to customer satisfaction,
reduced churn, increased revenue and employee satisfaction.

THE
TRENDS
BEFORE
NOW
Start from the ‘what’
Product
Start from the ‘why’
Customer
Hard skills # 1 hiring criteria (e.g.
language proficiency, writing skills, programming
skills, certificates)
Soft skills increasingly important
(focus on empathy)
Universal, one-size-fits-all
approach
Personal, tailored experience
for each customer

THE
FLIP
From
a traditional, self-centric approach to
customers at the heart of everything you do:
(Source: www.gerriesmits.com)
Customer
experience
Tech /
IT
HR /
Talent
Process
Product
Marketing / Comms

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HALITO!’S JOURNEY TO A
CUSTOMER-CENTRIC BUSINESS
How can SMEs adopt a customer-centric approach? Halito!, a company active in the event industry,
is the perfect example of a customer-centric business that goes to great lengths to build better
relationships with their customers on a day-to-day basis. Discover their full story.
Halito!’s an online platform for the event industry designed for guest registration
and communication and is mainly active in Europe, more specifically in the
Netherlands, Belgium and Ukraine.
In 2016, Halito started their own Customer Success department. The main focus
in their customer-centric strategy is ‘The happy flow’, a powerful framework
they’ve designed which boils down to the following:
“How we organise our business can’t be too complicated.
Simplicity and speed are essential in everything we do, and
we never forget to smile while we’re at it.”
Although success didn’t come overnight, their focus on proactive support and
customer involvement paid off relatively quickly:
“In just a year’s time, Customer Success really has become
one of the most important departments.”
1
So how did Halito! adopt this new approach? By implementing the following 5
changes:
MEASURE CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
“First, we send out really simple customer surveys at a regular interval, mainly
focusing on 5 key performance indicators (KPIs):
• Focus
• Speed
• Accuracy
• Clarity
• Friendliness
“We then ask customers to fill out this survey as honestly as possible, along
with one open-ended question (Do you have any tips to help us improve?).
This, combined with our Net Promoter Score, gives us key insights into how we
are perceived, things we do well and factors we can improve upon.”
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2
FREQUENT, PERSONAL, FACE-TO-FACE COMMUNICATION
“Our Marketing team sends monthly customer newsletters through MailChimp.
For example, we can segment our database based on location to send
targeted emails for an event in a specific area. We also attend several fairs
throughout the year, where we actively meet up with customers and send out
personal invitations in advance.”
“Customers appreciate seeing us, and we get to hear fresh ideas or desires, or
even questions they’re stuck with. A lot of customers really value this personal
relationship, and so do we. It allows us to increase customer involvement,
exchange ideas and get inspired. And it’s also a key step towards building a
community of stakeholders around our business.”
3
TAILORED TRAINING
This year, Halito! started providing personal training sessions at their offices,
as well as online. “Online training helps us save time. With today’s technology,
you can share your screen to demonstrate what the user will need to do. The
training we provide at our offices is more personal and tailored to the needs of
that particular customer.”
“We really take our time to listen - we’re not there to tell them what to do,
we’re there to hear what they need. These in-house training sessions also
allow us to share our personal findings and best practices, and introduce
customers to our software at their own pace.”
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4
5
KEEP AN EYE ON IMPORTANT BUSINESS METRICS
“As an IT business, we’re really into numbers and also actively use software to
help support our customer-centric efforts. That’s why we’ll start using
Cumul.io, a rich, straightforward data analysis platform that allows you to quickly
get actionable insights, to gain a better understanding of our statistics and
KPIs.”
“In addition, Teamleader’s ticketing module allows us to see our first and
average response time, when we receive most tickets, the full resolution time
for each issue, and individual performances within our team. We also created
custom fields in Teamleader’s CRM module to grant the marketing team some
key insights. This way, we can filter on specific segments and send targeted
email campaigns - to get the right message to the right audience.”
COMBINE CRM, TICKETING AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT
“Teamleader lets us improve customer relations, centralise all information and
manage our entire business in one versatile CRM tool. It gives us easy but
profound customisation options: suppose you’d like to send a personal email
with a special offer or call customers on their birthday. Small efforts like that go
a long way.”
“To help solve questions of our customers, we use Teamleader’s ticketing
module. We first had our own ticketing tool, but it’s just way easier to combine
multiple functionalities in one software. Practical questions are picked up by
one colleague; if we receive technical questions, we simply assign tickets to
the right developer. It helps us focus and maintain a clear overview.”
“Aside from those practical questions, we also manage projects for our
customers from start to finish when, for example, an event is complex. We can
even grant our customer insight into the status of their project online. Again,
this helps us improve customer relationships and involvement altogether.”
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WHY NOT GIVE TEAMLEADER A TRY?
Want to become a customer-centric business, and go the extra mile for your customers? With its CRM,
ticketing, project planning, and invoicing module, Teamleader is the ideal solution for SMEs that want
to improve their customer experience and build better relationships.
KEY FEATURES
Stay on top of every
relationship and keep
close track of every
touchpoint in the CRM
module
Personalise your
communication with
custom segments, tags,
and custom fields
Provide a great
customer experience:
allow customers to
approve quotes online
Meet your customers’
demands: answer
questions right away
with the ticketing
module
Go ahead: give it a try for free!
Or dive deeper into the
different modules, and take a
tour of the product:
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