More and more industries become aware of the importance of the customer for the success of their own business. In the context of the offered consultancy services the term of customer management is considered as a holistic and cross-company approach. Precondition for a customer orientation is the identification of target groups based on specific criteria or a combination of different criteria (cluster). In a short-term perspective and in most cases in connection with the continuous improvement process of products, processes and services an analysis of existing customer requirements takes place. Meanwhile several studies are published in which the importance of different attributes is analysed for products and services of different industries (e.g. price, service, brand, specific features of a product). In the next step there is an analysis of the customer fulfilment and the customer satisfaction. Many companies do this on their own based on defined key figures or in cooperation with market research institutions to get a comparison with the data of competitors. Another example are customer days, where the customer gets the chance to discuss with the manufacturer problems that have to be solved or additional requirements. Already this analysis is very important and informative for an improvement of products and services.
In industries that are in flux and in markets with high competition and interconvertible products the solutions of the short-term perspective are not sufficient to exist in the market in the long run and to gain sustainable benefit. In a long-term perspective besides the sole fulfilment of existing customer requirements it is necessary to develop solutions for future needs that the customer will buy and use.
Essential for a successful customer management is a structured, effective and efficient approach, the use of appropriate methods and if necessary the additional cooperation with further experts (e.g. market research institution, advertising agencies).
Project topics – examples:
- Elaboration of studies
- Use of methods for the modification and/or development of new products and services (use of cost and benefit methods, e.g. target costing, conjoint analysis)
- Execution of a project to increase customer orientation within a company:
- - analysis of the status of customer orientation within the company
- - identification of approaches to increase customer orientation and determine quantitative and qualitative potentials
- - elaboration of appropriate measures (e.g. customer days, advertising efforts to improve the image, improvement of service quality)
- - execution of measures
- - controlling of executed measures and of realized potentials
Are you currently working on these topics? Do you need any support? Please contact Dr. Monika Bauch – Management Consulting. I will be pleased to work with you!