There is an increasing need for suppliers to focus on customers, as they try and deliver increased customer satisfaction. Key to this is the need to understand the value of the proposition to the customer, instead of thinking in terms of features and functions, such as 24 X 7 service, or a 4 hour Service Level Agreement (SLA). The focus has to be on the value to the customer of the service offering.

Customer focus promotes the idea that the business looks outward and not inward, and the “concept” of a customer becomes universal, internally and externally. Customer focus supports improved measurements systems, and the ability to think in terms of an extended enterprise where suppliers, employees, shareholders and customers are all highly valued by the business and gain value themselves from the business.

The success of this concept is being demonstrated by a number of leading edge companies who have seen their revenues significantly increase, as they let their business become customer-led not services-led.