TECNLOGO EN GESTIN LOGSTICA

Customer Focus

SENA Centro Nacional de Formacin Virtual y a Distancia.

READING COMPREHENSION ACTIVITY

1. Read the following questions and answer them

according to your knowledge.
1. What is a customer in the Supply Logistics Chain?
2. How does an organization determine customer requirements?
3. Why is important to identify customer requirements?
2. Read the following adapted document Customer Focus by Donald Waters.
CUSTOMER FOCUS
Determine, communicate and meet customer
needs and expectations are essential factors in the
characterization of actors in the supply chain and
development of the organization. In his document,
Waters (2007) states that customer is not simply
the person or organization that pays the invoice
but includes users as well as makers. Waters
declares that Customer Focus wants to satisfy
customers under the concept of profitability and
without any company loss. In order to know their
requirements is necessary to ask customers what
they need before making a decision and how the
decision affects them. These questions lead the
direction of the company and of their customers
needs.The application of Customer Focus looks for
the meaning, necessity and evidence needed for:
Determining customer requirements;
Communicating the importance of requirements;
Meeting customer requirements;
DETERMINING CUSTOMER
REQUIREMENTS

organization needs to seek to establish customer

needs and expectations before to start the design
of products and services to offer them for sale.
After that, the organization checks the results, and
it determines what the customer requirements are.
These requirements respond to the Customer
Focus Principle.

All organizations have customers and they exist

to create and retain satisfied customers those that
do not do so, fail to survive.According to the author,
it is essential for the survival of an organization
that it determines customer requirements. Water
says that the determination of customer needs
and expectations differs from the establishment of
customer requirements; for that reason, first the

The author expresses that the requirement is

implemented through the Demand Creation
Process. It involves the management system and
the marketing process to satisfy customers. The
marketing process tries to detect what customers
want to attract them to the organization with the
intention that their wants are satisfied. Also, the
sales process makes contact with customers for

TECNLOGO EN GESTIN LOGSTICA

Customer Focus

SENA Centro Nacional de Formacin Virtual y a Distancia.

existing products and services to make enquiries

and to know their needs, then those needs are firm
orders. In this process, it is significant to determine
the customer requirements to match the benefits
of existing products and services with the needs
and expectations of customers. Consequently, it is
important to understand the needs before making
a commitment to supply products or services.
Understanding Customer Needs
Waters assures that in order to determine customer
needs and expectations you need to answer some
important questions.
_ Who are our customers?
_ Where are our customers?
_ What do customers buy?
_ What is value to the customer?
_ Which of the customers wants are not adequately
satisfied?
The answers to the above questions will enable
marketing objectives to be established for:
_ existing products and services in present markets;
_ abandonment of obsolete products, services and
markets;
_ new products and services for existing markets;
_ new markets;
_ service standards and service performance;
_ product standards and product performance.
The results of market research will be a mix of
things. It will identify:
_ new potential customers for existing products
and services;
_ new potential markets;
_ opportunities for which no technology exists;
_ opportunities for which no product or service
solution exists;
_ enhancements to existing products and services.
The organization needs to decide which of these
to pursue and this requires a process that involves

all the actors in the logistic chain. The company

needs to focus on all the parts of it to exploit the
organizations full potential. Waters adds that the
contributions from design, production, service
delivery, legal and regulation experts are vital to
formulating a strong set of customer requirements
from which to develop new markets, new products
and new services. The research may identify a need
for improvement in specific products or a range
of products, but the breakthroughs will come from
studying customer behaviour(sic) .
Determining customer
needs and expectations
need to be extent to other
possible customers. The
organization can check
the good distribution,
import regulations or
distribution polices to
satisfy new markets
and actors in the supply
chain or to preserve the
product and service life.
The author quotes Morris (1960), who argues that
customers needs analysis is necessary to show its
results to design customers requirements and to
translate customer needs and expectations into
performance, physical and functional characteristics
for a product or service. If the organization
misunderstands customer needs and expectations
it will produce an inadequate set of requirements. It
is therefore the most relevant stage in the demand
creation process where ideas and beliefs are tested
and retested to ensure that they really do reflect
customer needs and expectations.
In order to know customer requirements is
necessary to gather data from the people involved
in the use of products and services to make decision
in the organization. The data can be primary data

TECNLOGO EN GESTIN LOGSTICA

Customer Focus

SENA Centro Nacional de Formacin Virtual y a Distancia.

(data collected for the first time during a market

research study) or secondary data (previously
collected data). However, you need to be cautious
with secondary data because it could be obsolete
or make with different research purposes.This data
identifies problems or opportunities.
Surveys are used for obtaining primary data.
Asking questions that reveal their priorities, their
preferences, their desires, their unsatisfied wants
etc. provide the necessary information. Information
on the profile of the ultimate customers with
respect to location, occupation, life style, spending
power, leisure pursuits etc. to size the market
to be established. Asking questions about their
supplier preferences and establishing what these
suppliers provide is also necessary. Knowing what
the customer will pay more for is also necessary,
because many may expect features that were once
options, to be provided as standard. Other sources
of secondary data can be trade press reports and
independent reviews. Comments about other
products can give a wider perception of the needs
and expectations of other possible customers.
COMMUNICATING THE IMPORTANCE
OF REQUIREMENTS
The organization needs to communicate customers
needs to establish statutory and regulatory
requirements into it. To the author, effective
communication consists of four steps: attention,
understanding, acceptance and action. It is not
just the sending of messages from one source to
another. The communication permits to transfer
information to satisfy customers needs.
Statutory and Regulatory Requirements
Customers not only purchase products and
services, they also desire a sustaining relationship
with a consistent quality, delivery and cost. It

permits to manage operations with environmental,

health and safety legislation. The absence of key
personnel for illness reasons can impact deliveries
and relationships. Some customers require their
suppliers to operate ethically and conserve the
environment. Also, financial laws permit that the
organization keeps the money to pay the fines
without affecting the organization; therefore it is
not only the product related to regulations that
can affect customer satisfaction. Some customers
require the organization to provide products and
services that fulfill with statutory and regulatory
requirements.
The writer thinks that in organizations where the
producers are remote from the customer, it is
indispensable to transmit customer expectations to
the company members to make decisions primarily
on the basis of satisfying these expectations and
not on the secondary internal requirements. In
management, is necessary to be clear about the
intentions respecting of customers requirements,
because in this way, the workers will focus in the
factors that can affect their priorities. In opinion
of the author, meeting requirements obliges a
realignment of priorities and careful consideration
to manage the attention, understanding, and
acceptance and correct action of the workforce in
favor of the customer needs.

TECNLOGO EN GESTIN LOGSTICA

Customer Focus

SENA Centro Nacional de Formacin Virtual y a Distancia.

MEETING REQUIREMENTS
Customer requirements need to develop customer satisfaction. Organizations need to do the necessary to
satisfy customers. If the organization interprets customers requirements, it can supply them according to
their needs and the statutory regulations. Water says that organizations only stay in business by satisfying
their customers but organizations can fail to survive if they do not also satisfy other stakeholders such as
their employees, regulators and society. People will only continue to work for organizations that treat them
fairly. Regulators can close down businesses if an organization breaks the rules and if all else fails, society
can influence government and so change the law to stop organizations behaving in a way that harms the
population not only of the host country but even the earth itself.
Each actor in the supply chain is a customer who constructs an operating system that meets the goals to
achieve in the chain.
In sum, Customer Focus integrates all the actors in the logistic chain with their needs and wants. Each one
is a customer to be satisfied in all his requirements under legal, environmental and statutory regulations. An
organization survives if internal or external members find their needs.

TECNLOGO EN GESTIN LOGSTICA

Customer Focus

SENA Centro Nacional de Formacin Virtual y a Distancia.

ACTIVITY
Read the text and complete the diagram according to the
corresponding information. Use the words in the box.
When you finish the activity, check your diagram according
to the answer sheet.

statutory and regulatory requirements

customer

expectations

determine

requirements

Needs

To

By means of

Customer
Focus

Wants to

Communicate

To

Surveys

Establish

Transfer

Meet

Information

TECNLOGO EN GESTIN LOGSTICA

Customer Focus

SENA Centro Nacional de Formacin Virtual y a Distancia.

requirements

expectations

preferences

surveys

design services

location

search for new markets

occupation

price

Customer Needs and Expectations

design products
To

needs

To know customer

satisfy customer's needs

match benefits

priorities

standarize products

desires
unsatisfy wants

to know

by means of

life style
others

regulatory

transfer

delivery

environment

safety

Communicate customer requirements

Establish

statutory

of

requirements

of

quality
cost

To

health
of

actors in the supply chain

information

financial laws

construct operating systems

Meeting Requirements

To develop

customer satisfaction

of

to

Achieve goals

Customer Focus

REFERENCES
Waters, Donald. (2007). Global Logistics - New Directions in Supply Chain Management. (5th Edition).
Kogan Page Publishers.
Online version available at:
http://www.knovel.com/web/portal/browse/display?_EXT_KNOVEL_DISPLAY_
bookid=2573&VerticalID=0