The Issue of Customer Orientation and Its Manifestation - Essay Example

Running Head: ORIENTATION Orientation (Your School) ORIENTATION Introduction The orientation has increasingly attracted the attention on of researcher in the recent past. It has become a subject of interest not only to the business world but also to the scholarly world. In the recent past, companies have committed a lot of resource on researching on the subject of customer orientation behavior and building of organization culture that is customer oriented. There have been systematic effort by many companies to come up with programs especially in their production and sales department that are customer oriented. Companies have encouraged their sales people to implement behavior which are customer oriented and which focus on the integration of marketing concepts and customer oriented behaviors. Satisfaction of customers has been the guiding principle in the operation of many companies. What is customer orientation? Customer orientation has been described as a set of beliefs which are used in sales which postulate that customers needs and satisfaction has to be given priority in business and in the operation of an organization. It is a concept that focuses on the interaction between the organization and customers in view of the competitors in the market. It also looks at the issue of internal shareholders and how they relate to the operation of the business and the way in which they influence policies that are made in the operation of the organization. It is a process that involves continuous improvement of the business process. In this regard, it can be described as business that is seen from the point of view of the final results of the business process. This means that the business process is seen from the point of the customer. The concept places more emphasize on the need to listen to the needs of the customer. In this regard it tries to find out what kind of products the customer needs in the market and what response customer gives about the product that they are provided with. They are linked to satisfaction of the customer. This concept as used in management can be seen as a way of staying closer to the customers or putting the customer at the to pf o the organization chart. This means that the customer become the most important person in the organization. The main focus of customer orientation is in production and in sales. (Berneisten, 2004) Which behavior can be considered as customer oriented? There are several behaviors which can bee seen as customer oriented. These are behavior and actions that are aimed at meeting the satisfaction of the customers. These action include thinking and talking about clients, assessing customer perception, resolving priority issue in favor of customer, making amends for poor treatment of customers, employing any policy at hand in order to satisfy the needs of the customers, re-aligning processes and redeployment of resource which are geared toward ensuring high quality services to the customers, and many other action all which are aimed at satisfying the needs of the customers. (Hunt, 2000) Therefore customer oriented actions are those actions which will be opposed to sales action that are geared toward achieving immediately increased sales of a product rather than satisfying the needs of the customers. Sales oriented actions are geared towards achieving immediate sales with no regard to the benefit the product will have on the customers. Therefore as opposed to sales oriented actions, customer oriented actions will be looking at satisfying the needs of the customer and hence it will involve collecting the view of the customer about products and services and likewise giving redeploying service and process to suit the needs of the customers. How can a corporate create a customer oriented culture? The culture of a corporation is one of the most important aspects that determine how an organization performs. Different Corporations have been known by different culture where they have excelled. They have come to be identified with different cultures. An organization can successfully change its culture although it will take a lot of efforts to change. In the same way the organization can help to change its culture to adapt a customer oriented culture which will need some form of production and market input. In order to create a customer oriented culture, a company needs to have an extensive market research data that will give customer needs and their view about the products of the company. In this regard this data will act as a roadmap that will assist the company to come up with the ways in which it needs to change its operation of the modifications that it has to make to existing product. But one of the most important factor that will determine how an organization will respond to this will be the committed that it will have on the need to change it culture. This is the individual belief and acceptance of the goals of the organization and values in acting in the capacity of the organization. Therefore the process starts with the commitment of the workers. The organization will then use the market research data to respond to the change that it needs to create in its production process or in its marketing process in order to focus on the needs of the customer. (Narver, 1998) Therefore creating a customer oriented market culture requires a change in the production and marketing process of an organization. In this regard it will involve coming up with a production process that is dictated by the demands of the customers. The product has to be made to customer specification. It will also create a marketing system that addresses the core need of the customer. This means that the marketing system has to be more responsible to the needs of the consumer and be direct. This will involve having a direct marketing strategy that ensures maximum interaction between the consumers and the sales people. Therefore it will be a culture that will involve customer driven output and customer driven marketing process. In this regard the degree of complexity and individuality will be determined by the customers. (Pine, 2003) Fostering customer orientation In order to foster customer orientation, there is need for the organization to come up with policies that will be used to address the various issues that regards the satisfaction of the consumers. If the consumer is the main focus of the organization, then there must be efforts which are aimed at addressing their needs. This will involve giving the customer a first priority in marketing and in the operation of the organization. The need of the customer needs to drive the whole organization right from the strategic planning point of view up to the end of the marketing process. The production process must produce what customers have specified and the marketing process must be aimed at reaching the customers. (Osterle, 2000) To foster the culture of consumer orientation in an organization, there is need to train the staff to focus on the demands of the customer as the driving force of the organization. This will involve all the departments which mean the staff will be working to serve the customer. The staff should realize that serving customer is their work and hence they should do what the customer wants. The most influential area that customer orientation can be fostered is in the marketing department. In this regard, the marketing staff must realize the aim is to reach the consumers. What is ford doing to foster an atmosphere of customer orientation? Apparently Ford is one of the companies which have responded to the need to have a customer oriented operation model. In this regard Ford has been described as a study model for marketing weighing on the way it has been able to evolve its production and marketing model to suit the need of the customer. Post-Fordism model which is closely associated with Henry Ford who was the proprietor of Ford has been used to describe the mode production and marketing models. Practice of customer oriented culture in Ford has taken the initiative of jus-in-time production which is a manufacture idealism that is driven by the needs of customers. This production model emphasize of the collaboration between the customer and the producer to ensure that what comes out of the production process is what is needed by the consumers. In this regard it is a model that is closely associated with the specification of the consumers. It has been seen as one of the most efficient production model as it leads to saving of raw materials and warehouse expenses. This is because everything is produced as per the order of the customer which takes in the specification that they want for that particular order. The process also involves the customer in the improvement of quality of the product. The process also empower the employees since they are given time to interact with customer and help them to make decisions. (Loos, 2005) The efficiency of the process has also been limited by the fact that the company has not been able to integrate technology full in its operation except in some of its plant. Unlike in other businesses technology in this regard is very important in linking the customer and the designers. What is ford not doing to foster an atmosphere of customer orientation? Although it has taken this initiative, Ford has not been able to fully integrate the production process. This is based on the fact that there is still a lot of control of the production and marketing process. The company has not been able to fully create a link through which customers can easily dictate what they want like other companies like Zara in the fashion industry which has been able to enhance personal communication of the customer with the designers who in turn dictate what they want from the industry. Therefore the company has not been able to address all needs of the customers. The company not set up customer-service network which will address the need of the customers. This would also help them to make their contribution direct to the company. The company has been relying on it distribution network for orders which are specified. This means that the company prepares orders which are specified by the distributors and not by the customers. Therefore there is still need to link the consumer direct with designers in its factories which will assist customers to give their direct contribution. What could ford do to foster an atmosphere of customer orientation? There are more issued that Ford need to have addressed in order to foster customer oriented culture in the organization. In this regard the company should invest more in technology in order to link the customers and the designers in the factories. The company should integrate the needs of the customer in the production process in order to ensure that it is one of the strategic policies that the company will seek to address. In order to be more responsive to the needs of the customers, the company should come up with customer service centers in all its outlets which will help to link the needs of the consumers with the production and marketing process of the company. Serving customer in its outlets will be one of the most important ways which can help to adopt a manufacturing process that meets the demand of the consumer. This concept has been practiced in Ford Plant in Spain and it has been show as one of the most important way of linking the customer and the designers in the factor. What am I doing to foster my own customer orientation? In my work, I ensure that I carry out measures which are meant to foster customer orientation. In this regard I ensure that I always put the customer first in my work. This means that I ensure that my service as based on the evaluation that I have collected from the customer. So every time I serve a customer, I usually enquire about how they feel about my service and how they would like it to be improved. This is meant to help me get an idea about how I should offer my services and in which ways I should improve in order to satisfy the needs of the customer. So based on the evaluation that I have made from the customers, I am able to tailor my services to suit their needs. What could I do to foster customer orientation? There are more that I could do in order to foster customer orientation in my work. I need to be more attentive to the needs of the consumer and always strive to provide them with goods and services that suit their taste. I need to enquire more from the customers and look at the trend in the market. This will help me provide my customer with servicers that are tailored to their needs. It will also help me to provide them goods and services that are more personalized. References Berneisten, H. (2004). Psychometric Theory. McGraw Hill Hunt, D. (2000). Marketing contribution to business strategy. International Journal of management reviews, Vol. 2(1):9-12 Loos, P. (2005). Concepts of Customer orientation: Customer Driven output. Chemnitz University of Technology. Narver, J. (1998). Customer led-led and market oriented. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 19(10); 9-12 Osterle, H. (2000). Enterprise information. Shaping Enterprise Relationship on the internet, Issue 15 Pine, L. (2003). Mass customization. Harvard Business School Press Read More