Customer centricity is all the rage these days but what is it exactly and how can it benefit you?
Simply put, customer centricity means putting the customer and their needs at the center of an organization’s heart and mind. Practically, this means making decisions with customer interests as the priority.
Making this happen requires starting at the end with the desired result in mind and working backwards to develop processes, products, and services that will create that result rather than building things first, finding willing buyers, and selling to them.
To examine this outcomes-based approach, let us look at the airline industry. The desired result of all airline passengers is getting from one place to another safely and on time, however, different customer segments have different specific needs. Business travelers for instance want comfort, space to work, and meal options to accommodate their fast-paced schedules while families on vacation are more cost conscious and focused on having fun. The airline, working backward from these outcomes, designs experiences that suit both types of customers while delivering on the larger overall need of on-schedule safe travel at the same time.
In the event industry, we can use this same customer-centric, outcomes-based approach.
Successful production that flows smoothly with no errors, technical or human, is the overarching goal of all events. However, as with airlines, different customers have different detailed needs that must be addressed. Some want to sell things while others are providing training. Some want to communicate news or special messages while others are celebrating. Each of these customers wants their event to flow smoothly with no errors but they also want their specific objectives met.
While the product-focused event producer begins by thinking about equipment needs, costs, and efficiencies, the customer-focused event producer begins by looking at the desired objectives to then plan what would be best for the customer. Learning about the desired outcomes is always the customer-centric starting point.
Once it is clear what customers want to accomplish, then the event can be designed to directly address those needs. This keeps the customer at the center with everything directed toward accomplishing their goals.
To do this requires a team with salespeople whose first question is not “what do you want,” but rather, “what do you want to do?” The answer here provides clarity around the desired outcome. This is the end the production team will work to bring to fruition. Every element from equipment to planning will use the desired outcome as the basis for decisions on design, timing, and every other detail.
Working from the other direction, a product-focused direction, leads to selling equipment and providing a commodity rather than co-creating a result that is valuable. That is an approach that is transactional while a customer-centric outcomes-driven approach is relational. One cannot work from an outcomes perspective transactionally, it simply does not work.
This customer-focused results-based way is how innoVia approaches their customers. We work to learn what it is you want to accomplish and then work backwards to build something that will bring that to life. You and your objectives are at the center of everything we do. We see each client and their event as unique entities that must be nurtured. Let us show you the difference.
