Developing a customer-focused mindset
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Keywords: customer responsiveness, customer satisfaction, customer experience, market orientation, organisational culture
Developing a customer-focused mindset Patrick Barwise and Sea´n Meehan Received (in revised form): 14 July 2005
Abstract To become customer-focused, companies need clear values based on openness, flexibility and an external focus; an insistence that business cases are supported with current, factual market data; and limited tolerance for trial and error. The aim is to be fast and right in the eyes of customers.
From market information to customer responsiveness Harold S. Geneen, former chairman of ITT, held that ‘It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises, but only performance is reality.’ In this paper, we argue that successful companies develop a culture that is appropriately responsive to customers, using what we call ‘fast and right’ processes, since speed of response is also crucial in competitive markets. It discusses such companies’ direct learning from the market, their decision-making process and the role of accountable experimentation. We also summarise the key features of the ‘pure air’ culture underlying these fast and right processes. Our starting point is how companies learn about markets. An important element of this is ‘immersion’ — direct customer contact in the actual buying or usage context — as well as competitor understanding and the use of customer dissatisfaction data to identify generic category benefits with scope for improvement. Of course, firms need formal market research to complement the impressions from direct immersion. But none of this market information achieves anything unless the company learns from it and responds appropriately. It is the underlying values of the organisation which ultimately drive its ability both to sense and to respond to market signals.
How companies learn about markets
Patrick Barwise London Business School Regent’s Park London NW1 4SA, UK Tel: +44 (0)20 7262 5050 Fax: +44 (0)20 7724 1145 E-mail: [email protected]
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In 1997, while exploring the nature of the relationship between marketoriented values, behaviours and business performance, we conducted a survey of senior managers. Our unit of analysis was UK businesses with responsibility for strategy development and implementation as well as financial performance. The sample frame comprised 1,400 UK-based main operating subsidiaries of a sample of 200 companies quoted on the London Stock Exchange and headquartered in the UK. The survey was endorsed by Lord Marshall (then Sir Colin Marshall, CEO of BA and chairman of the Marketing Council) in the form of an introductory letter. After a pre-mailing announcement, the initial mailing was followed up
& H E N R Y S T E W A R T P U B L I C AT I O N S 1 4 7 8 - 0 8 4 4 ( 2 0 0 5 ) V O L . 7 N O . 2 PP 122–136.
Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice
Developing a customer-focused mindset
You should still measure customer satisfaction
In themselves the
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