Customer

Once customer’s needs and expectations are identified, products/services can be designed and marketed, presented to the customers to meet those needs. The market now determines what the manufacturer produces or the retailer sells and information collected from customers provides the basis for the focus for all organisational activities.
Do not make assumptions about customers and their needs, ensure that you identify just who your customers are and what their needs are. Communicate with them often and regularly.
Go directly to your customers for the information you need for information on customers priorities, likes and dislikes, purchasing intentions and value you should offer to customers. Identify and plan to meet desired customers outcomes.
Identifying customer needs is a continuous process. Do not assume that customers needs will stay the same. The changes will be influenced by social, economic, political, market and psychographic trends and movements. Conversations with customers about immediate needs and services let you know what is happening now and what the current levels of satisfaction are but you also need to know about emerging needs. Internal and external customer data helps the organisation discover new opportunities, better understand how products and services are used prevent problems that impact the customer and prioritise work. Understanding customer needs helps define new market opportunities and drive innovation and revenue growth in every aspect of the organisation.
Customers and their needs need to be identified before plans are made and before products/services are designed. Customer needs need to be properly identified, assessed, planned for and catered for. This means that when developing business, strategic and operational plans the focus needs to be on the customer and meeting customer needs. If the organisation is able to develop a true customer focus, then organisational business goals can be achieved.
A business plan is a