Leading a Customer-Focused Organisation: Finding, Attracting and Retaining Business

A customer-focused organization is one that is close to each customer and that understands specific types or groups and then uses this knowledge when making decisions. Being customer-focused means gathering facts, data and knowledge about customers – current and potential – to develop an awareness of what they want and how they perceive the business’s products and services. This awareness enables you to continuously strive to meet your customers’ requirements and secure your organization’s long-term survival, growth and profitability.

However, realising these benefits is a challenge requiring a keen understanding of where a market is heading and how opportunities can be exploited. It is easy to dismiss the need for customer-focus as self-evident, whereas in reality it is often difficult to incorporate customer issues accurately into decisions. Techniques that help managers achieve this include: market sensing, segmentation, data mining, using the internet and product development.