17 best practices that help brands grow alongside their customers

Fast Company

02-07-2025

BY
Customer expectations are constantly changing, and the most successful brands are proactive enough to anticipate them. Sales growth in the modern age is all about forging stronger relationships, building trust, and creating value at every stage of the customer journey.
From real-time feedback loops to thought leadership and adaptive storytelling, business leaders are finding new ways to grow in sync with the people they serve. To that end, 17 members of the Fast Company Executive Board share the most effective practices they've used to evolve alongside their customers and strengthen long-term loyalty.
1. SHIFT FROM SELLING TO SERVING.
Brands grow when they shift from selling to serving. By educating the industry, sharing expertise, and leading with insight, not just products, they earn trust and stay top of mind. Being a reliable source of clarity in a noisy market builds lasting credibility and customer loyalty. – Lexi Sydow, interos.ai
2. DEEPLY UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMER.
Have a deep understanding of who your customer is and communicate in ways that surprise and delight them. Encourage them to help you share the good news about your brand through word of mouth and social media. – Jo Ann Herold, Herold Growth Consulting
3. INVEST IN HIGHLY ACTIONABLE DATA.
Investing in highly actionable data enables brands to truly understand their customers and engage with them on a deeper level. With accurate, privacy-first identity insights, marketers can deliver more relevant experiences, build trust, and drive sustainable growth through better engagement strategies. You can't scale what you don't understand. – Bryan Whitaker, Statara Solutions
4. TURN CEOS INTO STORYTELLERS.
To truly grow with their customers, brands need CEOs who don't just lead behind the scenes but become their most authentic, magnetic storytellers—because when a CEO's personal brand shines, customer loyalty follows like a spotlight on stage. A strong thought partner helps a CEO figure out their ideal and authentic personal leadership brand. – Beth Jannery, Titan Strategic Communications
5. BUILD A MEASUREMENT MINDSET.
Growth isn't a guessing game. Brands that build a measurement mindset into their marketing double down on what works and grow with their customers. Don't stop at basic conversion metrics that only tell part of the story. Widen the lens to spot patterns that bring the bigger picture into focus, helping you understand what drives customer decisions, meet their needs, and earn their loyalty. – Jessica Shapiro, LiveRamp
6. DESIGN ADAPTIVE EXPERIENCES.
A best practice for brand growth is building adaptive systems across experience, strategy, and storytelling. Today's customers expect progression, not just personalization. Every interaction should be an opportunity to listen, learn, and evolve. Growth happens when brands evolve with their audience, not just market to them. – Gabriel Bridger, Rightpoint
7. ALWAYS BE HELPFUL.
Be helpful, whether it has anything to do directly with what you sell or not. If your customers think you're helpful, there is truly no downside to that perception—ever. – Andrea Lechner-Becker, GNW Consulting
8. LISTEN, LEARN, AND ADAPT.
Engage in active listening through surveys, feedback loops, and social engagement to understand evolving customer needs. Then adapt offerings and messaging accordingly. This builds trust, loyalty, and long-term growth. – Scott Keever, Keever SEO
9. BREAK DOWN ORGANIZATIONAL SILOS.
Only one best practice? Ruthless audience centricity—and breaking silos. I rarely see marketing, product, and sales all rowing in sync. But when those three act as one team, grounded in customer needs, the center of that Venn diagram isn't chaos—it's growth. – Sarah Buckler, Tangible
10. ENGAGE CUSTOMERS PERSONALLY.
Actively engage with your customers, whether that's through social media or personalized engagement. Respond to online comments, write thank you notes for orders, and take your time when answering emails. Meaningful interactions show that you care about your customers and help build a personal connection with clients. – Mark Valentino, Citizens
11. LEVERAGE THE POWER OF PR.
Get as much visibility as you possibly can. The best way to do this is through the press. Speak on podcasts, contribute to a publication in your field, and get the attention of a journalist by offering your expertise. Do whatever you can to stay in the public eye. No publicity is bad publicity. – Victoria Chynoweth, Victoria Chynoweth
12. MAINTAIN HUMAN CONNECTIONS.
When you're growing and scaling, don't forget where personal touch and connection actually matter in your customer's journey. You can automate a lot, but you can't automate the trust and loyalty that come from real human interaction. Keep that part real. – Travis Schreiber, erase.com
13. CREATE A CUSTOMER ADVOCACY PROGRAM.
There must be a consistent feedback loop between brands and their customers, which can take many forms. One way is through a customer advocacy program, where both parties benefit from a deeper level of access and investment in each other. This might include soliciting customers' feedback more regularly, meetings with business leaders, and participating in pilot and beta programs for new products. – Irina Soriano, Seismic
14. RESPOND PROMPTLY TO BUILD TRUST.
The best practice brands can follow to grow with their customers is to respond to their customers quickly, within an hour or two. That includes phone calls and emails. It doesn't have to be a long answer to their concern or question, but an automatic email, text, or phone message that tells them you received their communication and are addressing their need goes a long way toward building trust. – Baruch Labunski, Rank Secure
15. STUDY THE CUSTOMERS WHO LEAVE.
Listen carefully to the people who walk away. We studied our defectors, asking, 'What made you downgrade? What did we miss?' The feedback wasn't always easy to hear, but it was gold. Their departures revealed blind spots our loyal users couldn't see. Sustainable growth comes not from doubling down on what works, but from understanding why others say it doesn't. – Shayne Fitz-Coy, Sabot Family Companies
16. HOST CUSTOMER CO-CREATION LABS.
My go-to best practice is hosting quarterly 'Customer Co-Creation Labs'—live virtual sessions with our members to brainstorm new templates and PR tactics. We feed those insights directly into our roadmaps, creating a feedback loop that ensures our branding evolves in lockstep with our customers' needs. – Kristin Marquet, Marquet Media, LLC