COMMERCE LEARNING SERIES

Series 1: The Customer-First Mindset

EXPERIENCE MAKERS

Understanding the Customer-First MindsetC O U R S E 2 O F 6

2COURSE 2 of 6 Understanding the Customer-First Mindset

TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S

What a time to be expanding your commerce footprint.

Driven by record demand and unpredictable challenges, brands are taking a new look at how they bring customers into strategic focus.

Why? Because research tells us Customer-First Mindset adds up to revenue growth, but commerce is still slow off the mark. Commerce can and should lead Customer-First Mindset development across global industry – we’re on the edge of trends, technology and customer expectations.

Research also shows that commerce is dealing with a New Customer that’s digital, unpredictable and easy to lose.

Introduction 03

The impact of a Customer-First Mindset on business 04

Customer-First Mindset as an organisational cornerstone 06

Where does CFM sit on the business agenda? 08

Reflect and discuss 10

3COURSE 2 of 6 Understanding the Customer-First Mindset

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Understanding CFM

Commerce companies across APAC and the globe have their eyes firmly set on customer experience (CX); we know how to drive CX initiatives across channels in our siloed teams, but lack an effective, holistic inside-out strategy within the organisation.

Change is more likely to be incremental than a clean slate new organisational strategic approach. So, throughout this module we’ll look at the big picture, some lightbulb moments, and give you a chance to dig deeper on the parts of CFM you're interested in.

Customer-First Mindset (CFM) is one of those slippery terms that can mean different things depending on your industry, business maturity, and marketing sophistication.

An evolution in customer relationships

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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Brand aspirations towards CX as a primary differentiator in the marketplace don’t match their execution, sacrificing revenue and growth.

• Customer-First Mindset can exist as an organisational strategy, a central approach to customers, or a customer-centric view of the buying journey.

• A Customer-First Mindset is part of being a truly customer-first organisation.

4COURSE 2 of 6 Understanding the Customer-First Mindset

The impact of a Customer-First Mindset on business

But a closer look often identifies the true organisational drivers, like profit or internal efficiency.

Those drivers may be important and valid, but ultimately they need to be the result of a CFM approach rather than competing to define organisational goals and defining your success.

The 2021 Digital Trends Experience Index divides the companies who responded into 2 distinct groups:

CX Mainstream CX Leaders

The difference between the two groups? Their strategic commitment and investment in CX over the last five years.

Over 60% of Mainstream respondents admitted that if they were a customer of their own digital CX, they would 'possibly' or 'definitely' look for other brands. For CX Leaders, it drops to one quarter.

The disconnect is real.

Most companies would rush to say they are customer-first. After all, your business doesn’t exist without its customers.

82% (vs 14%) Only Just

of businesses agree that CX offers a competitive edge, but only 14% say it forms a crucial part of their organisational strategy.

26%of participants say the value of CX is defined and tracked in their organisation.

10–12%of leading brands are creating a proactive, personalised customer experience.

82% 18%

The disconnect

Most companies recognise CX as a primary differentiator in the marketplace. But in most cases, their aspirations are greater than their execution.

There is a disconnect at play in the current CFM environment. The business knows that a Customer-First Mindset approach—at either an organisational and strategic level OR execution level where activities are rolled out—drives revenue and growth.

5COURSE 2 of 6 Understanding the Customer-First Mindset

New Customer Behaviours in 2020s commerce

The rise and rise of customer expectations

As commerce lets CFM adoption lag, customer expectations are higher than ever, and their spending power is a compelling economic reason to listen.

What’s driving customer expectations in an age of peak commerce and challenging supply and fulfillment? Companies—particularly in commerce—powering seamless, effortless end-to-end experience enriched with data.

A key differentiator that demands consistency

Customer experience has become the key differentiator; the better the customer experience, the more the customer expects and aspires to. The rub is the consumer power of social media to call brands out on experiences that don’t meet their expectations. A negative customer experience can be amplified across social media for all the wrong kinds of attention.

Customers expect consistency in a brand from sales to support. Is your brand’s approach consistent across channels and touchpoints?

Unusual Growth inDigital Customers

Unusual Customer Churn

Unusual Buying Behaviorfrom Existing Customers

63% 57% 72% 56%

35% 32% 39% 32%

49% 51% 69% 51%

B2C B2B Consumer Goods Manufacturing

Digital Trends Survey, Q4 2020, n - B2C = 665, B2B = 626, Consumer goods = 152, Manufacturing = 197

Did You Know: Standing out just got real

81% of brands expect to compete in 2021 based on customer experience.

What is a friction point in the customer journey?

What are the key friction points that push customers out of your commerce store?

Can we remove all friction from the journey – and should we want to? Can some friction be positive?

Food for thought

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6COURSE 2 of 6 Understanding the Customer-First Mindset

Customer-First Mindset as an organisational cornerstoneAt their best, commerce leaders are creating personalised, human-centred experiences, driven by an overall customer-first strategic approach across the organisation.

CFM for a brand

All of these things are true of CFM. You can choose the level you dial up depending on your audience or the decision-maker you want to persuade.

A successful Customer-First Mindset strategy puts commerce customers at the heart of what matters – and then supports them with operations and marketing

True Customer-First Mindset isn’t one definable thing. It’s an organisational driver, a central approach to customers, marketing and ops, and a commitment to customers that you will demonstrate they come first in every interaction at every touchpoint in their customer journey.

That’s a lot of heavy lifting, and it can be tough to define, so let’s take a look at some of the individual pieces.

What makes up a commerce Customer-First Mindset?

CFM for a customer

It stands to reason that the Customer-First Mindset can’t be exactly the same for every type of customer. Depending on how you look at CFM in your organisation, the elements can be exhaustive and complex.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on the things that matter to individual customers.

What would you add to the list as being your deal breakers for choosing a brand?

• Choice of channel – choose fastest – logged in on phone (Omnichannel)

• Sizes and fit preferences saved (Personalisation)

• Offered ‘customers also bought’ (Merchandising)

• Showed matching accessories

• Saved details for easier checkout

• Default express delivery included (Fulfilment)

• Easy returns and exchange

• Compostable delivery bag and no-waste packaging (Green consumerism)

When we talk about CFM, we can take a few angles.

Organisational strategy

Marketing team strategy

�e goal of our CX activities

Beyond customer-centric

7COURSE 2 of 6 Understanding the Customer-First Mindset

How a CFM Mindset leads to a CX outcome

There’s a lot of plates to spin across CFM. What are the key ways to unify the elements so the customer experience has less friction?

Clear and consistent brand identity and purpose – stay consistent in how you look, sound, and act.

Unified and accessible tech and backend systems with access to data and insights across teams, customer types, and stages of the customer journey.

Accessible Voice of the Customer and customer feedback options – make it easy to give feedback, ask for help, or solve a problem.

Voice of Customer and feedback shared across teams.

Why are we putting our blinders on to these stats? We know the approach works for people and growth, so what's stopping us?

Is it easier for born-digital companies to control their organisational approach than a traditional shopfront department store?

Is a customer-first focus in some areas better than in none at all?

Food for thought

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CFMorganisationalapproach

A Board decision to fund a website UI and UX review

Commerce team

Uses the review to create a business case for a digital-�rst strategy

CX outcome

Personalised product suggestions and faster checkout

8COURSE 2 of 6 Understanding the Customer-First Mindset

How CFM impacts other business areas

Where does CFM sit on the business agenda?The first step to getting CFM on the agenda is getting key decision-makers across the concept through the perspective of existing business priorities.

The 3 keys to changing business mindset: people, process, technology

Organisational structure Do you have the right leaders in place?

Business Priority How it can be in�uenced by a CFM approach/strategy

Product design What are your customers looking for?

Budget Can you balance production costs with purchase price?

HR and People Is your focus on the right places to grow your commerce footprint?

Marketing What are the pain points we are trying to solve for our customers?

Safety and Compliance What do our customers expect from us?

Supply Chains What do our customers expect from us?

Process• Boost VoC research • Share results and insights across teams

Technology• Automated onboarding and nurture sequences • Single view of customer

People• Talk openly about CFM mindset as the driver of brand growth• Visible leadership support for approach and execution

How do we build a Customer-First Mindset?

Being a truly customer-first organisation

demands a change to business mindset.

The CFM Mindset and how it needs to be a part of every decision. Understanding how customers want to experience commerce at every step of the phases of discovery through to action can mean granular principles of customer engagement that consider the customer experience in detail.

Based on analysing customer behaviour, some of your specific CFM principles might include:

Discovery, consumption and learning

• Using customer language, not company language

• What customers want to know, not what you wantto say

• When they need to know it, not when you want tosay it

• At the location where they are, not where it’s easierfor you

• With the level of detail they want, not the level youwant to provide

• With the information that matters (including price),not what suits you to share

Actions

• Only the actions they’re ready to take, not the actionsyou want them to take

• Only the actions that will help them, not the actionsthat will help you

• Only require them to do the action once, becausenobody likes doing the same thing twice to get theone result

• Give them the feedback for actions they need, notwhat suits you

• Give them the shortest and easiest path to achievewhat they want, not the path that benefits youthe most

We know there’s a disconnect between awareness and execution of Customer-First Mindset strategies; the business accepts it will drive growth, but it’s too hard to press pause on other demands. The barriers to adopting CFM can differ across your organisation.

Let’s take a moment to quickly scan your business priorities in the poll below.

What that looks like in practice: Examples of customer-first behaviour

Building a Customer-First Mindset demands and the flexibility to stay committed but practical.

Business priorities check-in1. Attuned to customer needs: We listen to customers, and act on

what they’re saying.Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly agree

2. CFM as a key performance indicator: We have established KPIsto measure what CFM success looks like.Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly agree

3. Employee enablement: My organisation supports its people toknow and own and take charge of CFM initiatives.Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly agree

4. Boardroom commitment: Our company's CX commitments arebacked by our leaders and prioritised in planning budgets.Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 Strongly agree

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Is CFM on the agenda at your organisation's board meetings?

Who do you think is the natural fit to 'own' CFM within your existing org structure?

Can a CFM approach work if it only comes from marketing?

What would need to change in your team, and your organisation, to shift towards a CFM approach?

Food for thought

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You can use your results to:• Talk to your leader or mentor for

feedback on your research

• Use the audit to start a conversation with leadership about CFM

• Develop an organisational CFM strategy

• Improve CFM principles within your team

• Reflect on your brand’s position and next steps

Reflect and DiscussReflect on each of your responses to the audit.

1 Why is each item a Customer-First Mindset business priority?

2 Why is this being done/not being done yet?

3 What would be a starting point for each?

Test your knowledgeReview your understanding of this course in the short end-of-course quiz below.

Take the test

Your course instructor

About Adobe Experience Cloud

Nicholas KontopoulosCOURSE CONTRIBUTOR

As Adobe DX’s APAC Head of Growth Marketing, Nick believes that ‘Customer Experience’ is more than marketing fluff — it’s a core business ideology that needs to be at the heart of everything you do. With 20+ years professional experience across multiple industries and geographies, Nick has developed innovative and viable business strategies for global brands.

We empower growing businesses to move beyond isolated transactions and campaigns to understanding their customers’ entire journey with their brand. From marketing to revenue and awareness to purchase, we help companies of all sizes deliver exceptional customer experiences that drive competitive advantage and sustained growth.

Learn more at www.adobe.com

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