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Getting close to the customer.

Article Excerpt
[check] This checklist is aimed at managers at all levels and explores the steps and principles involved in assessing the needs of customers as the basis of any business operation. It focuses on how to find out the needs of customers but does not extend to suggesting ways of meeting those needs.

Definition

Getting close to the customer involves gathering facts and knowledge about your customers (both current and potential), and turning these into an awareness of what customers want from you and how they perceive your organisation and your products and services. This awareness must then be acted on to ensure that you continually meet customer demands and ensure long-term survival and profitability.

Advantages of being close to your customers

Being close to your customers will enable you to:

* be more responsive to changes in demand and in the market

* act on facts rather than hunches or intuition

* develop a product or service better tailored to your target market

* achieve improved sales and increased profits.

Disadvantages of being close to your customers

The advantages far outweigh any disadvantages, but you should take the following factors into account:

* The better you try to get to know customers, the more you risk intruding on their privacy.

* If you are asking a customer to impart personal or valuable information, then you will probably have to offer a reward or benefit in return.

* Customers may resent being asked for personal information, and may not always tell the truth.

* Surveys and research can be costly and time-consuming.

Action checklist

1. Examine the...

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