Prerequisites for Customer Orientation

Abstract

A highly competitive global market means numerous opportunities as well as numerous threats and challenges. Products become increasingly indistinguishable. Companies need therefore to develop concepts and strategies for relationships with their customer. For this purpose, a comprehensive consideration is necessary. The shift from transaction marketing to relation marketing already took place, and the focus is on the customer. Customer relationship management seems to provide possible solutions for competitive markets. The CRM hype is ongoing even though failing rates of CRM implementations up to 75 percent are reported. One of the success factors for CRM implementation is orientation toward the customer. Customer orientation requires various different measures like change management, cross functional collaboration, process management, employee commitment and the support as well as the encouragement from the owners or investors of a company. Internal marketing is necessary to convince employees to switch from functional to cross functional thinking. Customer orientation is a strategy, a journey and a long term undertaking and requires continuous review and improvement. The paper provides with a comprehensive insight on necessary factors for a customer orientation.