Critical Evaluation of Customer Centricity in E Business

This report provides a critical evaluation of customer centricity in E business. It discusses the importance of customer centric approach, its evolution, and implementation in E business. The report also highlights the benefits of customer centricity and its impact on the success of E business.

Running head: E Business
E Business
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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................4
Critical Evaluation of Customer Centricity in the Prospect of E Business.....................................4
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................10
References:....................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction:
The report aims at providing a critical evaluation of customer centricity. Customer
centricity refers to a strategy for fundamentally aligning the services and products and services of
the company with the needs and wants of the valuable customers. Being customer centric refers
to the means of doing business with the customers in a manner that puts forward a customer
experience for driving repeated business, profits and customer loyalty. Nowadays, various E
businesses are also adopting customer centric means for the sale of their products and services.
In this context, the examples of Zappos and Amazon require a prime mention on following a
customer centric approach. Customer Centricity is something more than offering a genuine
customer service as it involves offering greater experience from the stage of awareness through
the process of purchase. The article would consider three peer-reviewed journals for establishing
the prospective of customer centricity in the context of E business.
Critical Evaluation of Customer Centricity in the Prospect of E Business
According to Shah et al (2014), the customer centricity concept is not something new
whose benefits are under discussion for over 50 years. There were also proposals put forward
that firms should not only focus on selling the products but on the fulfillment of the customer
centric needs. However, business community recently embraces the importance of the customer
centric approach. According to Shah et al (2014), less than 20 percent of the marketing
organizations amongst 1000 have evolved successfully for leveraging the capabilities, value
added process and customer centric approach. If one goes by history, then he or she will be
able to find that the firms were more products centric. The economies of the scale and scope
have been central since profits were a direct reflection of the market share. Thus, the firms have

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been more oriented internally with much of the attention focused on the manufacture of the
superior products instead of inclining towards the users and purchasers of the products.
However, revolution in the latter half of 20th century led to the introduction of some unusual
improvements in the collection, storage, analysis and transmission of huge quantity of
information. This led to the realization amongst the firms that put forward a greater opportunity
for the firms including those with E business facilities in investing in the Information
Technology (IT) for management of customer relationships. Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) became the catchphrase that also motivated the companies in making substantial
investment in various software packages related to CRM, initiatives for database marketing and
infrastructure for supporting marketing that is technology driven (Fader and Peter 2012). Such
firms expressed their motivation for achieving a continuous dialogue across all the touch points
related to the customer along with maintaining a personalized treatment for the valuable
customers. However, the real scenario was that most of the companies lacked the necessary
customer centricity for realizing such benefits.
Moreover, according to Shah et al (2014), customer centric organizations are bounded
together via a central value where each decision began with anticipated opportunities and
customer for benefit. However, a common norm within the customer centric organizations is that
the employees act as the customer advocates. Another unique norm shapes the willingness of the
individual employees for sharing information with their peers so that the organization remains in
better position for meeting the needs of the customers.

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Figure: Path to Customer Centricity
Source: (Shah et al., 2014)
As per Lamberti (2013), until the 1980s the concept of customer centricity was nothing
more than business philosophy or an idealized policy statement. However, the current reflection
of Customer centricity represents a situation experienced by concept of marketing. The
refinement and implementation of the marketing concept through analysis of the constituting
elements and the antecedents represented the base for development of a theory of market
orientation. For explaining the conceptualizations of the customer centricity, he regarded the
concept as opposite to the concept of product centricity. The fundamental assumption for product
centricity lies in seeing the company as repository of the competences and the resources for the
development of products and services. Such services and products represent the basic value
proposition on which the company acts for pleasing a number of customers thereby modifying
the offer for meeting the expectations of the customers. Customer centricity thus focuses the
attention on establishment of the mutually satisfactory relationships amongst the customers. The
individual customer expresses their needs according to which the resources of the company
activated for developing solutions for satisfying such needs. Presently, there has been criticism

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on the actual sustenance of a customer centric approach there by putting forward lesser extreme
views where a resource focuses on the economic effectiveness of customer centricity. Thus,
(Bonacchi and Perego 2013) states that, firms including E business do not only adopt the
principles of customer centricity but they also operate in the continuum that focuses on moving
from the product centricity to the customer centricity. Customer Centricity is associated with the
company’s capability in generating the intelligence of the customers, processing data and
gathering information for building the repositories of the comprehensive data regarding the
interactions between the firm and the customer and in supporting the modified marketing
activities (West Ford and Ibrahim 2015). The concept of customer centricity also actively
involves the customers in the innovation and the marketing process thereby co creating a value
with the same. In addition to this, customer centricity helps in shifting the focus from service
offered towards a newer customer experience for creating the value in a manner that remains
related to the customers.

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Figure: The Customer Centric Approach
Source: (Lamberti 2013)
According to Kamble (2012), Customers remains the most important assets for an
organization. In order to ensure continuity of business and become competitive, there is a need
for development of customer centric approach that touches all the points of customer interaction.
The approach of customer centricity helps organization in acquiring, retaining and growing their
customer base. The key element of a customer centric approach remains in being sensitive to
the needs of the clients and the proactive approach in interacting with the clients. Effective
management of the customer needs acts as vital differentiator for today’s businesses. Companies
are also changing on how they are marketing the products for better satisfying the needs of the
customers. Traditional marketing has also become less effective and more expensive with time.

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Companies are making use of the internet for entering into dialogue with the customers. With the
emergence of the internet, it has become possible in gaining permission for discussion of
products. Nowadays, internet provides the platform for research, advertising, sales, promotions
and customer support. Eventually the companies focus on the development of relationships with
the customers that will allow them continuous re supply.
Deploying the customer centric approach into E business framework requires careful
understanding of the framework (Richardson, James and Kelley 2015). Customer centricity
refers to the streamlining of the objectives of the firms for catering them towards the customers.
In such a scenario, for the success of the E business framework it is necessary to follow a holistic
approach in dealing with the customers. The E business must however consider that the
customers represent an important asset for the company therefore; it must align all its business
activities for serving the customers in an effective manner. There are various activities related to
the customers that surround the framework for E business. This involves, understanding the
value proposition of the customers, modified business offerings for customer, ensuring the
building of customer understanding for each interaction, building the advisory relationships,
analysis of the wants and needs of the customers, deployment of a customer centric virtual
framework and delivery of effective and prompt service.

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Figure: Customer Centric Model for E Business
Source :( Kamble 2012)
Conclusion:
To conclude, it can be said that customer centricity represents an indefinable goal for
most organizations. However, organizations have managed in successfully traversing the path of
customer centricity that has helped in reaping richer rewards in the form of the loyal customers
and financial performance. Customer centricity enables the firms in achieving a sustainable
competitive advantage not countered easily through competition. Thus, customer centricity

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happens to be an essential condition for the firms of the 21st century thereby helping them to do
well in the market place.

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References:
Bedarkar, M., Pandita, D., Agarwal, R. and Saini, R., 2016. Examining the impact of
organizational culture on customer centricity in organizations: An analysis. Prabandhan: Indian
Journal of Management, 9(2), pp.19-28.
Bonacchi, M. and Perego, P., 2013. Improving profitability with customer‐centric strategies: the
case of a mobile content provider. Strategic Change, 20(7‐8), pp.253-267.
Fader and Peter,. 2012. Customer centricity: Focus on the right customers for strategic
advantage. Wharton digital press
Galliers, R.D. and Leidner, D.E. eds., 2014. Strategic information management: challenges and
strategies in managing information systems. Routledge.
Kamble, A., 2012. Aligning Customer-centric Approach to E-commerce Framework.
Kilara, T. and Rhyne, E., 2014. Customer-Centricity for Financial Inclusion.
Lamberti, L., 2013. Customer centricity: the construct and the operational antecedents. Journal
of Strategic marketing, 21(7), pp.588-612.
Loshin, D. and Reifer, A., 2013. Using information to develop a culture of customer centricity:
customer centricity, analytics, and information utilization. Elsevier.
Mohapatra, S., 2013. E-commerce Strategy. In E-Commerce Strategy (pp. 155-171). Springer,
Boston, MA.

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Richardson, N., James, J. and Kelley, N., 2015. Customer-centric Marketing: Supporting
Sustainability in the Digital Age. Kogan Page Publishers.
Shah, D., Rust, R.T., Parasuraman, A., Staelin, R. and Day, G.S., 2014. The path to customer
centricity. Journal of service research, 9(2), pp.113-124.
West, D.C., Ford, J. and Ibrahim, E., 2015. Strategic marketing: creating competitive advantage.
Oxford University Press, USA.