Quality begins and ends with customers. An organization’s success depends on the number of customers it has, the quantity they buy, and the frequency of their purchases. Customer- driven quality represents a proactive approach to satisfying customer needs that is based on gathering data about customers to learn their needs and preferences and providing products and services that satisfy them. A satisfied customer will tell three more people if he/she liked the service but will tell 11 more if he/she does not like it. Finally, when a company’s customers are happy with the service and the product and find enthusiastic and knowledgeable personnel who are eager to help, then there are chances that the company will continue to enjoy the lucrative patronage of their customers for a long time.
Who is a customer? Definitions of a customer are as follows:
- The most important person in any organization
- Not dependent on employers; the latter depend on the customer
- Not an interruption in our work; the customer is the purpose of the work
- A part of business and not an outsider
- Not just a statistic, they are flesh and blood creatures with feelings and emotions
- People who have needs and wants; it is the employer’s job to fulfil them
- The lifeblood of any business; without them, businesses have to shut shop
Wal-Mart Inc., one of the most profitable companies in the world, attributes exceeding customer expectation to Sam Walton, the deceased CEO and the company’s founder. Many years ago, Wal-Mart started gaining market share over the competition due to Sam Walton’s principles regarding customer expectation. Sam Walton used proactive customer-driven quality to anticipate customer needs and to satisfy those needs as soon as they walked into a store. Wal-Mart’s assurance of surpassing customer expectations makes customers want to come back to their stores again. This belief of Sam Walton helped make Wal-Mart Inc. the leading retailer in the world and has guaranteed the happiness of many loyal customers who return to his stores.
“Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it,”
——————————————————————————————— Peter F, Drucker
Upon completion of this chapter, you will be able to:
- Explain customer focus
- Understand customer relationship management (CRM)
- Discuss customer value management
- Learn CRM in the context of B2B and B2C
- Describe e-CRM
Source: Poornima M. Charantimath (2017), Total Quality Management, Pearson; 3rd edition.
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