Seeking and Utilizing Customer Input to Improve Customer Satisfaction: Customer satisfaction has emerged as a significant business challenge, critical success factor – and strategic differentiator. It is essential in today’s highly competitive market for a company to have a customer focused strategy linked with an effective operating model in order to stay relevant, competitive, and profitable. Companies that understand customer motivations and expectations and link this information with internal operating improvements can create a customer buying experience that differentiates its product/service offering and delivers significant operating and financial benefits.

Improving customer satisfaction, retention, loyalty, and buying experience has surfaced as top pressures for many companies. This pressure is driven by the need not only to simply to meet but also to exceed customer expectations in order to stay relevant, improve profitability, drive growth and increase competitive advantage. Countless research on this subject documents that companies agree investing in initiatives that improve the customer satisfaction and buying experience create a competitive weapon and contribute to business success. This focus and strategy is becoming top-of-mind with many companies considering the measureable benefits and business value that can be achieved in transforming a satisfied customer into a loyal customer.

Quite often companies spend more time, effort and money gathering new customers than retaining their existing ones. Research shows that it can cost 4-6 times more to acquire new customer business versus increasing sales with an existing one. Though it is a business imperative to continuously seek new customers, there is significant financial reward in retaining and increasing business with existing customers. In short, one of the most valuable objectives a company can perform is a focus in not losing customers it has spent so much time, effort and money to acquire.

Companies can benefit from taking a proactive approach in creating the capabilities to work more collaboratively with its customer to identify, minimize, or potentially eliminate problems. This partnership can improve a customer’s overall buying experience and have a direct effect on their continuing – or increasing business with a company. A company that successfully executes this strategy will increase its operating efficiency and business performance, improve customer satisfaction, create competitive advantage, drive profitable growth, and build stronger and longer customer relationships.