Companies organized around the customer went from strength to strength in 2016. In 2017, this strategy has continued to pay dividends for the brands and firms adhering to it.

Companies that put the customer first are winning big.

[source: Forbes] Well, duh, you may well be responding to this truism — who else would be winning? When you listen to your customers and give them first-class service, they will come back — we knew this years ago, didn’t we?

Customer-focused technology

Yet the story of the past few decades hasn’t necessarily been one of customer first, company second at all times. Stock market analysts still look at profit-and-loss sheets and growth forecasts, instead of evidence of whether company cultures are obsessed with how happy and loyal their customers are.

Digital transformation is an idea that has offered a path to becoming more customer-centric for the past five years or so. But while the promise of digital transformation has been realized by some companies, for many it has been hijacked by technology solution-pushers and cost-cutting automation.

There is a stark difference between high-tech/low-cost digital transformation and transformation based on the principle of putting the customer first, while developing a company culture to support it.

Focus on finance

Financial services is one sector where digital transformation has been used to automate services, poorly, mostly, resulting in job cuts in bank branches and call centers. Customers weren’t winning here because the focus was on investing in tech to lower costs. The new disruptors in this space are thriving because they have put customer experience at the forefront. High Street bank Metro is all about delighting customers in-store, while emerging online brands like Monzo and Zopa simply offer better deals and easy-to-use apps to outsmart the large incumbent players. Monzo and Metro both set themselves apart by not charging fees every time a customer uses their card abroad. Simplicity itself.

Because customers are worth it

The beauty industry is a great example of how incumbent companies are joining forces with influencers to connect with their customers. An industry insider recently told me that of the 15 billion views of beauty-related videos in the last year, just 2% were of brand-created content. And somewhat counter intuitively, this isn’t a problem. By leveraging the influence of bloggers and YouTubers, these brands can speak directly to their customers from within their own online communities.

The big brands may still spend fortunes on feel-good, Cannes-winning “viral” videos — old habits die hard — but the attention of the customer is firmly with UGC and YouTube.

Brands should spend time and money understanding what their customers want to hear, more than what the brand wants to say. My tagline for this idea would be “listen to your customers” because they’re worth it.

From content to commerce

The champion of customer-first digital transformation over the past half decade it’s Burberry. Setting out with an ambition to be the first digital luxury brand, its leaders understood from the outset that this wouldn’t be about better advertising algorithms, but getting as close as it could to its communities. While so many of its digital efforts — online and in-store — are exemplary, you can take every Spring/Summer catwalk show since 2010 as a benchmark of its growing digital maturity. Early on there was the “Tweetwalk,” live updates of the show, then live broadcasts into its stores. Then customers could actually buy the clothes on the catwalk from their mobile devices instead of waiting six months for the new looks to appear in store. By 2016, Burberry’s digital transformation had reached all of its customer touchpoints and supply chain — the very heart of its business model.

The company replaced Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter shows (the names of which were only accurate in the Northern hemisphere) with six monthly shows showcasing what people could buy immediately in-store and online. Achieving this was about more than flashy apps and clever social-media experts. Supplier contracts had to be renegotiated and the whole process of design, production and fulfillment was re-thought. All of this change and transformation was not led by a single leader, but by a new culture of customer obsession. Customers wanted these changes, Burberry gave it to them and the company thrived.

The empowered customer

Customers will be more connected than ever in 2017, and communications must be designed around how they seek out information and products. Once you have the ability to communicate with your customers, to hear what they want and win opportunities to talk to them, it can change the whole company. Heroes like Burberry can serve as inspiration for every brand with the will to adapt to the customer-first reality of the digital age.