FREE online courses on Business Strategies - Business Strategy - Satisfying Customer Needs
One of the biggest challenges for companies
is to identify ways in which they can bundle their resources and capabilities to
create value for customers.
Because, given the choice, customers are most interested in purchasing products
that both satisfy their needs and
provide value.
When a company decides whom it will serve,
it must simultaneously identify the targeted customer group's needs that its
goods or services can satisfy.
Top-level managers play a critical role in recognising and understanding
these needs since their insights about customers influences product, technology,
and distribution decisions.
The identification of key customer groups,
customer needs, and preferences (for product characteristics, features or value)
must be determined. This implies
that customer knowledge (best gained through direct contact) should be a high
priority for top-level managers as well as for sales and marketing personnel
because knowledge of customer needs and preferences affects or influences
companies' choices of the appropriate technology, distribution, and products.
Customer knowledge becomes even more
important as companies attempt to perpetuate or sustain a competitive advantage.
By listening to customers, companies can learn to correctly anticipate their
future needs and create product innovations ahead of their competitors (to gain
a first-mover advantage) and before competitors can imitate the last value-added
innovation.
