Challenging Customers - Essay Example

The paper "Challenging Customers" is an outstanding example of a business essay. Customers may be seen as presenting challenges for the firm in a range of different ways, this essay will consider a number of articles from the business, trade and academic press which show the challenging nature of customers in various guises.
The first two items to be considered are the ethical consumer report published by the Co-op Bank and a related ethical consumer publication “deeper luxury” published in connection with the WWF (Co-op Bank 1-20, Bendall and Kleanthous 1-44). Both of these articles highlight the fact that challenges presented by customers today go beyond those of customer service, here the articles indicate the need for a firm to act in an ethical way with the responsible souring of input goods and ensuing ethical practices with regards to labor rights. The articles both elude to the possible consequences of a company failing its customers in this regard, largely through the possibility of lost sales and boycotts on the behalf of the consumer.
The second set of articles to be considered demonstrating the challenging nature of the business to business customers (Talking Retail, Creevey). Here examples are cited in the UK food retail sector of where large customers have named the environment for small food producers particularly challenging by taking advantage of the significant power they hold through the process of bulk buying. Such practices are used in reality to drive down prices and negotiate what may be thought of as punitive commercial terms.
As such, one can see that customers can present a variety of challenges to the firm ranging from price based pressures to the need to make changes to ways in which products are manufactured and produced in the first place.