Adopting the Customer-Centric Mindset Why Putting Customers First Is the Key to Growth When you think of your customer’s buying journey, do you envision it from start to finish, or do you just focus on the sale? While that end goal is crucial, your marketing strategy needs to get them there. To nurture your customers through the checkout process, you have to put yourself in their shoes and develop your marketing strategy from their perspective from start to finish — an approach called customer-centric marketing. WHAT IS CUSTOMER-CENTRIC MARKETING? Your product/service is impressive, but it’s your job to convince potential buyers. The bottom line of customer-centric marketing is to understand why a customer needs your product/service, how the product/service meets their needs, and if customers see themselves using your product/service. One way to accomplish this is to meet your customers where they are. According to a 2023 Sprout Social Index Report, 53% of consumers increased their social media usage since the pandemic. Those consumers also desire stronger engagement from the brands they follow or support. HOW CAN IT BENEFIT YOUR BUSINESS? Your customers respond to techniques that appeal to emotions and invite reactions and interactions. This engagement helps nurture a relationship that gives you more information about what customers want and helps them gain trust in your offer. IMPROVE AND GROW Focusing your marketing strategy on customers makes promoting tailored products that respond to customer needs easier. You need to make your brand stand out in your followers’ minds, creating new followers and allowing them to contribute while feeling heard and seen. Social media is the top channel for product discovery. However, before customers commit to a particular purchase, they check existing customers’ reviews, comments, and testimonials, making customer interactions paramount. CREATING LOYAL CUSTOMERS Loyal customers are your biggest advocates and will continually choose you over competitors. Once you acquire new customers, it’s time to build those connections to create loyalty by reflecting their needs and values in your marketing campaigns. Customers who love a product or service stand by it and will tell everyone why they love it so much — and will do this without you asking.
Chick-fil-A Taps NFL Tactics to Speed Service Fast Food Goes Pro
How much difference does three seconds make?
If you’re Chick-fil-A, it could mean the difference between success and failure — at least when it comes to drive-thru speed.
Taking a page from the NFL, Chick-fil-A is using sports software to analyze “game film” of its drive- thru operations,
looking for ways to shave seconds off service times. According to The Wall Street Journal, an Illinois Chick-fil-A operator used this approach during a chicken sandwich promotion, combining drone footage with recordings from his kitchen and drive-thru lanes to pinpoint bottlenecks. His goal? To beat his record of serving one car every 13 seconds — a crucial task, given that drive-thru sales account for 60% of Chick-fil-A’s revenue. After reviewing the footage with colleagues, he found several issues. A veteran employee was taking on too much of the kitchen workload, slowing down the entire team. Weak internet in certain drive-thru areas was delaying tablet-equipped order takers. To fix these problems, he redistributed kitchen tasks, upgraded internet access, and even added a new service door to facilitate and speed up order pickups.
The result? A 50% increase in drive-thru efficiency since implementing the changes in 2022.
Chick-fil-A has long prioritized drive-thru speed. Some locations see such high demand that traffic backs up into the street, prompting store managers to climb onto rooftops to assess congestion. In the past, concerns over traffic have even led to opposition against prospective Chick-fil-A locations from neighbors and nearby businesses. With the fast-food industry shifting away from dine-in service, Chick-fil-A is staying ahead of the curve. The company recently opened a drive-thru-only restaurant in Atlanta, featuring four service lanes and a second-floor kitchen. As The Wall Street Journal puts it, Chick-fil-A is “on the vanguard of fast-food drive‑thru science.”
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