All eyes on the customer

The customer is the basis of your business and it’s important to satisfy your customer’s needs. I usually say that it’s easy to reach the top, but it’s a great deal harder to keep yourself there. Thus it’s important not just to focus on having many customers, but on having satisfied customers. When a customer starts making increasing demands it’s important to fulfill them – and preferably surpass them – creating an advantage over your competitors.

That customers are more often in the limelight is no secret. Technology is steadily developing and customers are becoming more demanding as a result. These increased demands come from rising standards and from the fact that companies are getting better at delivering on time, solving problems faster, and disseminating information very smoothly.

Higher demands on information

I’d like to stick my neck out and say that we’re rather spoiled today. In a previous blog post, my colleague Magnus Molin pointed out that there are certain things we can’t live without today, such as smart phones. Technology has also developed within logistics, which affects all actors in this broad market. I mentioned previously that customer requirements become more demanding as technology develops. This makes it essential to work in a business system that is both leading-edge and that can assure that you fulfill customer requirements. Having the most detailed information possible is one of many factors that can lead to providing higher service levels to customers, as well as internally within the company.

Higher demands on service levels

New customer requirements have led to putting pressure on everything from suppliers to carriers. Not pressure in the form of products or services, but in the form of service levels. Companies have to continually ask themselves: What is it that customers really want? And then act on that information. If you can’t satisfy your customers today, then you have to review your organization in order to find something that can meet their demands. But it doesn’t end there. Because technology is continually advancing, requirements change and become more demanding. That makes it essential for customers to keep up with trends and developments, to satisfy new requirements as they arise, and to continually probe customers for what they need.

If you ask me, customers are quite right to raise their level of requirements – not because the customer is always right, but for a very simple reason: no customers – no business.

Alexander Lahdo
Sales Manager
alexander.lahdo@primelog.com