Hi Customer Centric Concepts – Unlocking the Secrets.

Hi Customer Centric Concepts – Unlocking the Secrets.

The term Customer Centric Concepts came from our 25 years of experience developing and maintaining account relationships with Trane's National Account customers who grew to contributing over $300 million in sales and represented over 10% of Trane's commercial equipment sales. 

The average annual purchase volume for these accounts was 40 times the average for all Trane customers.

Our team analyzed what needed to be done to grow and maintain national account sales while earning the loyalty of our customers. 

The result of that study was the approach to be "customer centric" in the way we support our accounts. 

Trane's National Account customers awarded us with an average share of 75% of their business with customer satisfaction ratings at 10% above the corporate average.

What does it mean?

Being customer centric basically means to stop focusing on selling our product for our reasons and instead investing in the time to truly understand our customer's business, their strategic objectives and the obstacles to achieving those objectives. 

We then look for ways to utilize our products, services and technologies, with a willingness to stretch beyond our current methods, to help the customer meet their goals. 

We literally get inside of their shoes and make decisions that benefit them. There have been cases in which it was to a customer's advantage to use a competitor's equipment to resolve an issue. 

We not only participated in that analysis and recommend the solution, but helped them design the system utilizing competitive equipment. 

There are numerous stories that can be shared that proved this approach was extremely rewarding for both Trane and the customer. 

As a result, we earned our customer's loyalty and their business. People like doing business with people they trust.

Is it a business strategy or a CRM "tool"?

Customer Centric Concept is definitely a business strategy that involves the use of tools developed specifically to aid in the implementation of this strategy. 

Many firms promote being customer centric but do not have the tools needed to implement that "sales feature" with their customers. 

Being customer centric has required the implementation of the following, which represents some but not all of the steps required to truly be customer centric:

1. A willingness of your entire company to put the customer's needs ahead of their own
2. A willingness to expand on your current offerings to meet customer needs, especially in the services and support arenas.
3. The development of a documented methodology to implement and drive ongoing customer centric support
4. Ongoing training for those who need to utilize customer centric concepts with their accounts
5. A significant effort to educate your internal organization, all the way to the top, on the need and value of implementing a customer centric process.