The empowerment of consumers is forcing companies to confront the standardization of processes and customer-centricity.
Let's dive into the details of standardization and customer centricity to understand the pros and cons, and how they are shaping the digital customer experience.
Generally speaking, standardization promises efficiency and uniformity in operational processes, while a customer-centric approach offers the possibility of personalizing services to strengthen links with customers and create unique experiences that they will never forget.
What is standardization?
TechTarget definesstandardizationas "the process of developing, promoting, and eventually enforcing compatible, standards-based technologies and processes within an industry". Technology standards aim to guarantee quality, consistency, compatibility, interoperability, and security".
In other words, standardization involves creating uniform and identical products or services for a wide audience.
What are the benefits of standardization?
1. Efficiency and scalability
Standardizing processes facilitates rapid decision-making and improves productivity.As a result, companies can easily expand their businesses without compromising quality.
2. Improved profitability
By reducing process variation, costs are lowered, improving profit margins for businesses.
3. Reduced risk
Standardization ensures compliance with regulatory standards, which reduces the risk of development errors.
What are the disadvantages of standardization?
1. Inefficiency
Applying uniform standards to different projects can be inefficient because each project often has its own unique requirements.
2. A brake on innovation
Standardized processes can sometimes discourage creativity and innovation, as they focus on form rather than uniqueness.
3. Competitive issues
In a market where competitors are providing personalized experiences, maintaining standardized services can be a disadvantage for the business in question.
What is the Customer-centric approach?
Gartner explainscustomer centricityas “the ability of individuals within an organization to understand customer situations, perceptions, and expectations.Customer centricity requires the customer to be at the center of all decisions relating to the delivery of products, services, and experiences to create customer satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy.»
In other words, the customer-centric approach involves creating tailor-made products and services to meet the specific needs of each customer.
Companies that adopt this approach place the customer at the heart of their strategies and all these actions.
In this way, its products and services adapt to the preferences of their audiences.
What are the benefits of customer-centricity for businesses?
1. Improving customer loyalty and sales
By focusing on experiences tailored to individuals, businesses have the opportunity to cultivate lasting relationships, leading to increased retention, loyalty, and sales.
2. A better understanding of customer behavior
The customer-centric approach makes it possible to collect a lot of data on customer behavior and preferences.Companies can then use this data to develop new services.
3. A competitive advantage
By offering personalized experiences, companies can strengthen their competitive position and better meet customer expectations.
What are the disadvantages of the customer-centric approach?
1.Higher costs
Customizing products or services can be costly in terms of time, workforce, and resources.This can reduce a company's profitability.
2.Increased operational complexity
Customization can lead to an increase in the complexity of operations, requiring advanced IT systems, which increases the complexity of management.
3. Difficulty maintaining consistency
Depending on the size and internal organization of companies, it can be difficult to maintain a consistent customer-centric approach across all channels and customer touchpoints.
How to find the right balance between standardization and customer orientation?
Companies must choose between these two approaches based on their business model, target market and goals?
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Offering a limited range of customization options while maintaining standardized products and services: How to achieve this?
1. Segment and personalize
By identifying different customer segments and creating strategies that meet the needs and preferences of each of them with a certain degree of customization while maintaining a level of standardization.
2. Leveraging technology
Using artificial intelligence to automate personalization, reducing operational challenges associated with customer-centric approaches.
3. Create flexible standardized processes
By implementing standardized procedures, while maintaining the flexibility to incorporate elements of personalization.
The goal is to create acustomer experiencethat is both individualized and efficient.
4. Implement permanent feedback
Set up effective communication channels to constantly gather your customers' opinions, reactions, and comments.
This will encourage the continuous improvement of your products, your services, and your standardized procedures while ensuring that your customers' needs are listened to and met.
5. Cutting-edge training
Provide high-quality, up-to-date training adapted to the latest advances and best practices.
Offer high-quality, up-to-date training adapted to the latest advances and best practices.
Train your teams to fully understand your company's customer-centric vision, so that your strategy and processes can be applied consistently at all levels.
Case studies: the link between standardization and customer centricity
Here are a few examples of the successful implementation of standardization and customer-centric strategies:
Amazon has revolutionized the online shopping experience with an intuitive global platform.
Additionally, its product recommendation strategy is based on users' purchase and search records, which clearly illustrates the priority it places on customer preferences.
It has put in place a strategy to improve the algorithms that analyze customer behavior in order to offer them personalized recommendations while maintaining a standardized interface that simplifies user navigation.
Apple is known for being an innovative company, offering products that meet the needs of its users.
Standardizing the design of its ecosystem has enabled seamless integration across all its devices, delivering a consistent user-centric experience where
each element adds value to the other, fostering a seamless and unified user experience.
Starbucks has realized that its strength is selling experiences, not coffee.
With its mobile application, the company offers its customers the possibility of personalizing their drink, while maintaining the operational efficiency of each of its stores.
In other words, it has personalized its customer experience, while preserving its standardized back-end processes and guaranteeing operational efficiency and consistency.
Today's environment demands an integrated approach that combines standardization and customer-centric strategies in a transparent and balanced way.
Conclusion
To conclude, by carefully analyzing the benefits and drawbacks of both approaches and by leveraging appropriate technologies to find the right balance, companies can effectively navigate between standardization and customer-centricity.
They will thus be able to offer high-quality products and services while strengthening their operational efficiency and personalizing the CX.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. You can accessthis article in Frenchon my blog, along with other interesting CX readings.
I amElena Marcelle, I specialize in creating and executingdigital&#omnichannelstrategies aimed at enhancing the#customerexperience (#CX).
