Creating a competitive advantage with a customer focused strategy

摘要

Many organizations today are spending significant resources to better understand the relationships they have with their customers. These resources might include a customer relationship management software tool and/or a customer satisfaction measurement instruments. The intent of these tools is to provide the organization a clearer understanding of customer needs, behaviors and attitudes. It is believed that improving customer satisfaction based on the insight these tools provide will result in improved business results. However, despite the widespread adoption of these tools, there is little indication that overall customer satisfaction is actually improving. The most recent American Customer Satisfaction Index score for the U.S. economy shows that customer satisfaction has declined from a baseline index number of 74.2 for Q 4 1994 to 72.0 for Q3 2001. Are these efforts to improve customer satisfaction wasted or perhaps just poorly deployed? This presentation describes the key deployment steps necessary to ensure that investments in understanding customer behavior and attitudes can be leveraged for improved business results.