Care Matters: In a selfish society, selflessness goes a long way.

"Client-centric", "Customer-Obsessed", and "Customer First" are a few of the buzzwords that are often thrown around in emails, office communications, strategies, and marketing messages. But for very few businesses, in all honesty, it really is nothing more than lip service.

Can you honestly say that your business is truly "client-centric" if authentic caring experiences are not fundamental to your organisation's values?

If your business is built on the ethos of being a "caring business", this will absolutely make you stand out in a world over-saturated with products, solutions, and options. But woe to you if your claims of caring are not sincere, authentic, and genuine - customers and clients can sniff out insincerity from a mile away, and they will be quick to call you out on it, primarily by finding a genuinely caring competitor.

It might sound counterintuitive, but putting your customer/client (both internal and external) before your bottom line is the key. In a selfish society, selflessness goes a long way.

So, how do you change your ethos? How do you move from paying lip service to empathy to actually embodying a caring culture?

It starts from the inside and works outwards. How can you expect your team to care about your customers and clients if you don't first care for your people? Keep them aligned with the values of your business and in the loop when it comes to everything you as an organisation are doing. Engage them, make them feel valued, give them constructive feedback, and always allow room to grow. Cared for staff care for your business.

And then, it is on to your clients and customers. Remember they are people just like you - they are not numbers and percentages. Everything you go through, they go through. Every moment of joy and every point of frustration that you feel, they feel.

Consider how you would like your mother, son, brother, partner, or best friend to feel when interacting with your business and treat your clients with the same care.

Stop touting "customer-centricity" and "empathy" as your differentiators or unique value propositions. Words mean nothing without follow-through. It’s time to authentically embody these values as a business. This is what will make you truly stand out above the rest.