Customer Intimacy Strategy Examples (6 Companies)

Research shows there are three fundamental business models.

And if you read our tutorial on choosing your customer value proposition, you already know the three models are:

1. Operational Excellence
2. Product Leadership and
3. Customer Intimacy

For this tutorial, we are going to go deeper into the customer intimacy strategy with examples and see what some leading companies are choosing.

What is customer intimacy strategy?

Companies that choose the customer intimacy strategy are communicating to their customers,

“Choose us because we can customize our products and services to meet your individual needs better than the competition.”

Customer intimacy strategy is how the organization chooses to separate themselves from the competition. This is done by staying ahead of the wants and needs of the customer, modifying the product or service to fit what the customer wants, and empowering the staff to be able to make decisions that best serve the customer. 

If you choose the customer intimacy strategy, you have important decisions to make that have a profound impact on your balance sheet, hiring procedures, customer demographics & psychographics, and of course, on the sales and marketing strategy.

Your decision on which business model you choose should not be taken lightly.

• For example, if you choose to churn as much low-cost inventory as possible as quickly as you can, the customer intimacy strategy is not for you because these customers expect a tailored product to suit their needs.
• If you choose to deliver the most technologically advanced commercial security system, the customer intimacy strategy is not for you because these customers place a higher value on the flexibility of molding the product around their needs.
• If you choose to create a high-touch, full-support medical delivery service with many solutions and frequent product training, the customer intimacy strategy may be exactly what your customers want.

Let’s now develop a plan to make the customer intimacy strategy a reality for you, and then look at some examples.

How to achieve customer intimacy

Achieving customer intimacy is far more than a fancy mission and vision statement.

The important strategy of customer intimacy requires a deep integration of many simultaneous strategies and techniques, with one laser focus:

Exceeding customer expectations

For this reason, everything your company does needs to be centered around your customer.

Your team is an extremely important asset. Because, in most cases, your staff will be regularly interacting with customers. And if your front line doesn't have the skills, the autonomy, and the decision-making ability to devote resources to your customer, then this will be an evermore difficult strategy to get right.

An excellent set of techniques implemented by top companies that choose the customer intimacy strategy is to emphasize the correct employee training. This is done with a series of training programs focused on helping the new team member be a better performer.

Here are four great training programs to start with:

1. Goal setting
2. Core values
3. Leadership
4. Customer service

These courses don’t have to be long, under 60 minutes each, but they do have to be focused and leave the team member with a clear and simple action plan so they can easily integrate these skills into their life, making the new skills a positive force and set of habits.

Depending upon your industry, over time, you’ll find team members (and their family members!) will literally thank you for the opportunity to take these courses and show them how to implement these skills into their life. This is exactly what you want.

Not only will you be doing a service to your team, but your customers will experience these skills through your employees. Getting you closer to an atmosphere of customer intimacy.

Another common customer intimacy trait among the best companies is their dedication to product training on behalf of the customer. Educating and training the customer on how to get more from their purchase will further help you build a stronger, loyal bond with your customer.  And with so many online education tools, training is extremely easy to bring to your customers.

A wide range of products and services and a variety of training and education opportunities are common for companies that achieve customer intimacy. Support for customers on how to use the products and opening up communication channels to gain customer feedback helps companies stay in union with what their customers want.

Another excellent method to achieve customer intimacy is through education. But not just any education. The goal is to position your company and team as the #1 resource for your customers. Many companies will joint venture with local universities, get all the certifications necessary, and produce the highest quality and quantity of resources in their industry. This places a barrier to entry for any new entrants, but more importantly, provides an extra layer to the customer intimacy value proposition.

Additionally, the best companies allocate resources to doing research and discovering as much as they can about their customers. Beyond just a simple demographics report of age, income, and zip code, great companies also learn customers’ buying habits, how much they spend, and how frequently. They also rapidly innovate new products and services based on market trends learned, staying ahead of the customer’s needs.

Finally, a superior marketing plan is crucial to not just acquiring new customers with this value proposition, but a plan properly implemented to keep customers engaged. First, study Goldman Sachs (website: https://www.goldmansachs.com), Home Depot (website: https://www.homedepot.com and Travelers Companies Inc (website: https://www.travelers.com). See how they are communicating their wide product range, their attention to customer care, and education of their products and services.

Then, develop your marketing plan focused on:

1. Website Marketing and Online Advertising to keep your new customer pipeline full,
2. Email Marketing to communicate your message to potential and existing customers, and
3. Targeted Direct Mail Marketing to gain new customers and communicate evermore value to your best customers.

The best companies using the customer intimacy value proposition strategy strive to capture 100% of the customer’s budget for the given product category. This of course means they have done ample research to understand how much their target market spends and then carefully measure ongoing customer habits.

You can too.

Let’s now look at the best companies on the planet and who is using a customer intimacy value proposition.

Customer intimacy strategy company examples

If you have read our checklist on The Top 10 Commandments of Legendary Customer Service, you know that the hospitality industry is often geared towards the customer intimacy strategy.

Services do well here too. And within the services industry are two great companies that are leaders in the financial industry.

First, Goldman Sachs offers an excellent example of customer intimacy. There is no denying they are world-class. Just land on their homepage and the entire “above the fold” is dedicated to education. Followed by this statement:

“Our clients always come first. We serve them through a global network powered by partnership, integrity, and a shared purpose of advancing sustainable economic growth and financial opportunity.”

These are statements rarely made by product leaders and operational excellence propositions.

Another financial services market leader with a customer intimacy strategy is Charles Schwab. They are truly worthy of study and ethical modeling.

Land on their homepage, made for new users, and you will see this message:

“Welcome to modern investing your way.”

Followed by…

“You deserve more. We can help.”

Schwab has a variety of products and services made to fit the customer’s unique needs. And these solutions are backed by copious amounts of industry-leading education.

Over time, you can do something similar.

Another fascinating customer intimacy study is Salesforce. Salesforce has a wide range of products and services made to fit their customer’s needs.

Land on their homepage and you are met with a customer-centric featured story about 3M’s success. Supported by this customer intimacy value proposition:

“See how reps provide seamless support to retailers, distributors, and consumers.”

A common theme among these great companies is that their messaging is “You” focused. The product focus is secondary. And the “me” message that so many companies focus on is only used as a necessary statement to support the message if needed at all.

Which companies use customer intimacy?

Let’s finish off with a review of some of the top companies and their value proposition. This review is based on the primary, above-the-fold message on their respective websites.

While each company may have other things going on ‘under the hood’, we can judge them based on how they communicate their value in arguably their most important messaging platform that they own: their unique address on the world wide web.

Here’s a review of the 30 companies that make up the Dow. The columns are self-explanatory and you can reference each company message using their website address. Keep in mind that these main messages on each page will undoubtedly change, but if these companies have a value proposition that they have built their customer on, their value proposition shouldn’t change in the short term.

The Dow 30 and their Value Proposition
Company	Industry	Value Proposition	Evidence of primary message	Source
American Express Co	Financial services	Product leadership	Buy now, pay later with Plan It	https://www.americanexpress.com
Amgen Inc	Pharmaceutical	Product leadership	Candid conversations: Amgen early career professionals	https://www.amgen.com/
Apple Inc	Information and technology	Product leadership	iPhone 12 Blast past fast	https://www.apple.com/
Boeing Co	Aerospace and defense	Operational excellence	Sustainability report: explore our envionmental, social and governance progress	https://www.boeing.com/
Caterpillar Inc	Construction and mining	Product leadership	Rail Technology. We are helping our customers by creating smart, connected fleets to meet and exceed the needs of the railroads of tomorrow.	https://www.caterpillar.com/
Cisco Systems Inc	Information technology	Product leadership	What is AIOps? Discover three benefits and three steps to get started with artificial intelligence operations.	https://www.cisco.com/
Chevron Corp	Petroleum	Product leadership	Chevron hosting 2021 energy transition spotlight	https://www.chevron.com/
Dow Inc	Chemical	Operational excellence	The challenge of feeding the world: Growing population impacts the demand for grain production. Dow partnered with the food and feed industry value chain to enable sustainable solutions	https://www.dow.com/en-us
Goldman Sachs Group Inc	Financial services	Customer Intimacy	Exchanges at Goldman Sachs: Exchanges at Goldman Sachs is our podcast where people from across the firm share their insights on developments shaping markets, industries and the global economy.	https://www.goldmansachs.com/
Home Depot Inc	Retailing	Customer Intimacy	Free delivery. Special buy savings. How can we help you today?	https://www.homedepot.com/
Honeywell International Inc	Conglomerate	Operational excellence	The Future Is What we Make It.	https://www.honeywell.com/us/en
International Business Machines Corp	Information technology	Customer Intimacy	Experiment. Fail. Learn. buuild.	https://www.ibm.com/us-en?ar=1
Intel Corp	Information technology	Product leadership	Introducing Intel Arc.	https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/homepage.html
Johnson & Johnson	Pharmaceutical	Operational excellence	4 ways Johnson & Johnson has worked to make access to medicines around the world more equitable	https://www.jnj.com/
Coca-Cola Co	Food	Product leadership	A picture of the coca cola bottle and logo	https://www.coca-cola.com/
JPMorgan Chase & Co	Financial services	Operational excellence	Read our 2020 ESG Report	https://www.jpmorganchase.com/
McDonald’s Corp	Food industry	Operational excellence	The Saweetie Saweetstakes	https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us.html
3M Co	Conglomerate	Product leadership	World places hope in science: In 2021, science has inspired a sense of optimism around the world.	https://www.3m.com/
Merck & Co Inc	Pharmaceutical	Product leadership	We invent for life: We’re following the science to tackle some of the world’s greatest health threats. But don’t take it from us – see what our people and patients say.	https://www.merck.com/
Microsoft Corp	Information technology	Product leadership	Save up to $200 on Surface Laptop Go	https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/
Nike Inc	Apparel	Product leadership	The Best of Air Max	https://www.nike.com/
Procter & Gamble Co	Fast-moving consumer goods	Operational excellence	Stepping forward as a good corporate citizen	https://us.pg.com/
Travelers Companies Inc	Financial services	Customer Intimacy	The right insurance for you. We've got you covered every day and when it matters most.	https://www.travelers.com/
UnitedHealth Group Inc	Managed health care	Operational excellence	UNITED ON A JOURNEY TO IMPROVE HEALTH CARE	https://www.unitedhealthgroup.com/
Salesforce	Information technology	Customer Intimacy	3M delivers relevant content to increase consumer mindshare. See how reps provide seamless support to retailers, distributors, and consumers.	https://www.salesforce.com/
Verizon Communications Inc	Telecommunication	Operational excellence	The new Samsung Galaxy Z Series.	https://www.verizon.com/
Visa Inc	Financial services	Operational excellence	Meet Visa. A network working for everyone.	https://usa.visa.com/
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc	Retailing	Operational excellence	Wide range of products, good logistics, world class financials, long time dividend growth stock	https://www.walgreens.com/
Walmart Inc	Retailing	Operational excellence	College must haves. From dorm rooms to study essentials, get all you need for less!	https://www.walgreens.com/
Walt Disney Co	Broadcasting and entertainment	Customer Intimacy	Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian. A new episode is now streaming on Disney+.	https://www.disney.com/

Frequently Asked Questions about Customer Intimacy

Why is customer intimacy important?

The customer intimacy customer value proposition is important because it helps establish a strong connection between the customer and the company. By understanding customers’ needs and preferences, companies that practice customer intimacy can create customized products and services that meet the specific needs of their customers. This helps ensure customer loyalty and satisfaction, which can lead to repeat purchases, increased revenue, and overall business growth. Additionally, customer intimacy allows companies to establish a positive reputation with their customers, which can help them attract new customers and further differentiate their products and services from the competition.

How do you establish customer intimacy?

Customer intimacy is achieved through a deep understanding of customer needs and preferences, as well as a focus on providing value to the customer through personalized and tailored experiences. To achieve true customer intimacy, companies must engage with customers in meaningful and mutually beneficial ways, such as through personalization, customization, and real-time responsiveness. Companies must also understand the customer’s journey and create a customer-centric value proposition that meets their needs and exceeds their expectations. This includes designing a customer experience that is convenient, efficient, and tailored to their individual preferences. Additionally, companies must focus on building trust and loyalty through transparent and honest communication, as well as providing exceptional customer service. Finally, companies must continually strive to improve and refine their customer experience with the customer in mind.

How to improve customer intimacy?

To improve the customer intimacy value proposition, businesses should listen to their customers and understand their needs, wants, and preferences. They should also use customer feedback and surveys to identify areas for improvement and opportunities to better meet customer needs. Companies should also strive to build meaningful relationships with customers and create personalized experiences that are tailored to their individual needs. Finally, businesses should use technology to provide customers with timely, relevant, and personalized information and services.

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