Importance of customer value in today's competitive business market

Building and preserving customer value is essential in the new organizational structure taking place in the health-care industry. As businesses and consumers move forward, businesses are being measured more and more by the value they create for their customers. Customer value is the focus of the article "Customer Value & Business Success in the 21st Century." Customer value is defined as how a business values customers and how customers value a business's products or services.

The article focuses on health-care organizations, and how there is an expectant trend that individuals will absorb a greater share of their own health care costs. In order for health care organizations to respond to this growing trend toward consumerism, customer value applications must be implemented in daily business activities. The author describes four critical processes and areas that should be of focus in order to build success. The first is to successfully identify what your customers need and expect.

Valued Customer

Customers

Customers are Ignoring You

The second process is to build service delivery models to meet each target segment. The third area is to understand your customers enough to anticipate customer expectations in order to meet these expectations. The final process is to commit the organization to customer-centered strategic marketing and communications.

In today's unstable market, the only businesses experiencing success are those that are able to meet and exceed expectations of customers. It is essential in today's fast-paced business to develop quality relationships with customers which results in customer loyalty. The traditional way of pushing the product or service down to the customer is being replaced by tailoring business decisions to meet customer expectations.

The delivery of health care is changing to consumer centered health care where each customer is an individual with unique needs and expectations. Consumer centered health care requires altering or creating new products and services...