By Jonathan Hughes, David Chapnick, and Isaac Block
Company focus on customer-centricity is increasing rapidly, and the earliest movers are outpacing their rivals. But Vantage Partners’ findings have shown some industries have been slower to evolve.
Customer-centricity has become a hot topic over the past few years — and with good reason. Market leaders in customer-centricity and customer experience enjoy a myriad of benefits, from greater revenue growth and profitability to increased innovation and reduced costs.
As a classic example on which numerous business school cases will be written, Target and Walmart invested heavily in digital infrastructure and prioritized customer convenience. Sears, meanwhile, failed to adapt to changing consumer preferences. The consequences have been ruinous for Sears, while Walmart’s e-commerce growth accelerated to 43 percent in the third quarter of last year, and Target posted a record 49 percent year-over-year surge, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
The differences in performance and the customer-centric choices each organization made could not be more stark.
Continue reading “Customer-centricity: Is your company keeping pace?”