Will 2012 be the year of the customer?

Customers have been in the driver's seat for years largely because of the Internet and the ability to research any topic, anytime, anywhere. The plethora of information can be overwhelming, which is why successful companies are focused on delivering relevant content in the format that prospects and customers prefer. Companies who speak directly to customers unique needs will earn their trust and credibility every time. This translates directly into business. It's not rocket science, but the end result can be positively explosive to the top line.

It's the decade of the customer. More choices and more transparency say to retailers "serve or fail".

Amen! It is always the Year of the Customer.

Any time we forget that basic truth, we discover that next year is the Year of the Customer Gets Even.

Actually most businesses have been customer focused for many years. The power of the Internet, more specifically the use of Social Media is giving customers a voice, yet there are still many businesses that do not listen to what is being said - they consider themselves as the only knowledgeable party in the relationship.

It is true that with access to the social web customers can stand up and shout when things go wrong - and shout they do.

Is 2012 THE year? I am not sure that it is. The economic climate is one thing that drives most businesses and times are still tough. Whether this is right some corporations take little care of the customer is another matter, but they will use the economy as an excuse to take no action.

The definition of customer is the key for good management. Companies cover a wide spectrum of activities - manufacturers, Importers, Exporters, wholesalers, Distributors, Tourism, internet and shop retailers can be customers for business to supply goods and materials to. This represents the economic foodchain that feeds the end user/consumer who are the real customers we rely on to consume an ever increasing range of products being produced. The power of business success at any level of the food chain is targeting the attitude of the end consumer (potentially 99% of the global population) 2012 will be no different except for the continued growth in various social media and engineering technologies. Facebook is the best example of who the consumers are and what we can learn from them and what they want to consume. Provide good materials, quality products and put excellent service before sales is the formula for business success.

I don't think it is the year of the customer at all. It is the beginning of the era of the buyer. All customers are buyers but not all buyers are customers. Buying today is social, trust based and self directed. To focus on the customers is to focus on the wrong end of the spectrum. Let's understand that buyers what a consistent experience across the lifecycle of the relationship and streams of value. Instead of fixating on the customer, let's obsess over the buyer and how to enable, engage and build enduring relationships. Do that and well have more customers.

Check out my Forbes blog not the buyers' journey. Http:// blogs.Forbes.com/christinecrandell

I believe 2012 will be the Year of the Relationship. People are realizing that all the new technological tools and toys do not necessarily bring us closer together or foster true dialog unless they are consciously used to carefully cultivate a (mutually beneficial) relationship that (hopefully) will eventually result in a future transfer of wealth or connections, or other "currency." The problem is that it is an organic process that takes time and fair amount of social intelligence. But if your goal is relationship retention and renewal (and it better be!) there are absolutely no shortcuts.

I think that some companies will continue to make the customer the focus and others will not. I do believe we will get back to more verbal and face-to-face conversations and this will have a genuine impact on business and personal relationships.

Canned answer #1: It depends.

For large companies with a reliance on the Internet, it has always been the year of the customer.

For local, brick-and-mortar business, it depends on the population density. In low to medium density, it is all about the customer experience. In high population density it is too easy to adopt the attitude of "if you don't want it, someone else will;" unfortunately, they do.

The training I've received is based on customer service. With the internet and social networks
customers are making choice by via of who can provide the fastest information.

Reading through the answers I detect a great deal of exuberance about the customer being king, and how social media is making the customer experience better and better. Much of what you say is true but I do note that many of you are affiliated with the sales and marketing world. So, with this observation, I thought I would give you a customer perspective.

Trends are interesting. Bank of America and Netflix were mentioned as good cases where customer experience was not improving. Best Buy is also mentioned as place where you go and end up getting angry. I wonder is customer service really improving.

Amazon are mentioned as a good case in point where customer experience is really being addressed. I wonder about this, talk to most Amazon buyers and see what they say. It is cheap and available, well in a few days that is. But dig deeper, maybe ask yourself about your own retail experiences. Do you really think it is getting better?

My experience is this choice is getting better, prices are generally better, getting unbiased opinions on products getting better, immediate availability is not so good (I now wait a few days) and post sales experience is definitely getting worse (spend hours to finally get to talk to someone who is either not knowledgeable or empowered enough to solve your problem).

Before you post your response, just remember I am the customer.

2012 will be the start. Customers are able to research competitors and voice opinions much easier than ever before. The power of the people has started to strengthen and companies are starting to feel the results. As a company, recognizing the power of the people and finding a balance between profit and people is going to be key.

As mentioned above, every year is the year of the customer, and every year is the year of the buyer. How can it every be otherwise, when we all depend on them to fund our salaries, budgets, etc.? Management's prioritization of efforts and attitudes otherwise are the source of all-too-frequent pain for buyers and customers, and consequently, for employees and investors, in turn.

Customer experience management as a *determinant* of corporate strategy, in fact, is one of the 6 keys to strong market performance and customer/buyer experience excellence, identified by the 2011 ClearAction B2B CEM Benchmarking Study. (see http://ClearAction.biz/blog)

Mindset among managers and employees enterprise-wide about the driver's seat role that customers/buyers play in the success of a business is quite weak (http://ClearAction.biz/best-practices), but thanks to new voice-of-the-customer avenues and extreme cases such as the BofA and Netflix examples, more managers appear to be acknowledging and embracing the necessities of customer experience management. There is still a long journey ahead across nearly all industries toward widespread enterprise-wide engagement in focusing on customers first.

Yes, yes, yes. I agree it's the year of the customer more than ever.
For business's it's an opportunity to think like a designer in meeting the customer's needs. Business's that evangelize from the inside, convert business strategy into customer value and market opportunity will be hot, hot, hot in this marketplace. It's an exciting time; a time to listen hard to current psychological trends and invent new talking sticks (so to speak). As Marty Neumeier says: "Meaning not money is the new currency of business."

Surely for most businesses to thrive in competitive environments it is always about the customer or client!. Companies who do not look after their customer base end up losing them and going out of business or shrinking at the very least!. Social Media allows people to provide references (good or bad) on a larger scale than before but we have all talked to our networks about bad customer service, quality etc from companies when this has happened. The old adage if the experiece has been good the customer will tell no-one, if it's bad they'll tell at least ten. Talkback radio has thrived on this as a communication medium for years!. Every year every company should value its customers, they are the easiest and cheapest to re-sell to and relationship adds value to both the bottom line and to the asset value of the company

I do not necessarily think this is the year of the customer - as has been said by several already, the customer has always had the options and control in terms of where and how they spend. A great example of this is the downfall of Blockbuster. Their customers found a better, more convenient way to purchase i.e. NetFlix and a little while later RedBox. Blockbuster failed to adapt to their customer and stumbled badly.

I do hope, however, especially in B2B that this becomes the year where corporations begin to align around their customer. This is in all phases of sales, marketing, content, support and product development. If organizations can begin this change it will be a great year!

Carlos Hidalgo
@cahidalgo