The document discusses how to create a customer-centric organization through direct marketing. It provides five key points to achieve customer-centricity: develop a customer-responsive culture, involve other departments, ensure consistency across customer touchpoints, personalize communications, and pre-fill forms to save customer time. The document emphasizes that understanding customer needs and preferences is critical to maintaining relationships, and that customer experience is largely based on how they feel they are being treated currently.

1. Direct Marketing in
the Culture of “Me”
Creating a customer-centric organization doesn’t have to be complicated.
It just has to be strategic.
photography and illustrations ©iStock 2014.
1“Mastering Adaptive Customer Engagements,” The CMO Council, September 2014.
FIVE KEY POINTS TO ACHIEVE CUSTOMER-CENTRICITY . . .
Develop a
customer-responsive
culture.
Draw other
departments into the
conversation, including
customer service,
product development,
and IT.
Ensure that the
customer’s experience
is consistent across all
touch points (print,
email, online, mobile).
Personalize customer
communications,
whether newsletters,
product marketing,
or customer service.
Pre-fill forms
(print or online)
to save time for
the customer.
One of the
buzzwords
in direct
marketing these days is
“customer-centricity,” or
how a company aligns
itself around the needs
and preferences of its
customers. Whether that’s
in print marketing, email
marketing, a customer’s
online experience, or
mobile-friendliness, it’s
all about marketing in the
culture of “me.”””
Understanding customer-centricity
is critical to maintaining customer
relationships. Even if you’ve been great
at this in the past, keep pressing forward.
According to data released by McKinsey,
as much as 70% of a customer’s buying
experience is based on how the customer
feels he or she is being treated right now.
How do you maintain that
positive engagement?
According to a 2014 survey by the
CMO Council, here are the top three
ways customers see a brand as being
customer-centric:
How do you achieve those goals?
It takes internal cooperation,
multichannel integration, and data. Each
involves different marketing channels
— print, email, online, and mobile —
an integrated, branded approach to
multichannel communications, and
a strategy that incorporates all
departments of your organization,
including customer service,
marketing, and IT.
It also requires a
commitment to gathering
and collecting customer
data. While 30% of marketers surveyed
say their customers do not expect a
1:1 experience every time, 63% say
their customers’ expectations for
personalization are higher than ever.
This gives you an excellent opportunity to
stand out. Only 5% of marketers surveyed
feel they are excelling in the delivery of
a data-driven, personalized experience.
That’s a big, soft pitch down the middle.
You deliver the personalized experience
your customers want and you’ll slam a
home run right over the fence.
cite quick response times to
customer requests or complaints.
66%
see “always on” access to products,
account details, profile information,
and customer support.1
36%
say products that reflect a
customer’s own needs and
wants (which likely includes
personalized offers).
47%
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