Top 7 Critical Success Factors for Business - Part 3

For week 3 in my series of the Top 7 Critical Success Factors I discuss the thing that many businesses place too little importance on and is my pet subject.

1. Plan
2. Competitive velocity
3. Customer satisfaction
4. Network
5. Technology
6. Culture
7. Global thinking

Sub standard customer service not only alienates the immediate customer but can damage the reputation and brand of the organisation, leading to additional customer loss and an inability to attract new customers.

Surveys suggest that a discontented customer tells an estimated 10 people about their experience while a happy customer tells only one.

The more information you have about your customers the better you can service and anticipate their needs. You must have mechanisms in place that gathers customer information to allow personalised marketing and service and the future needs of your customer to be anticipated.

There is also the internal customers to consider - the humble employee, a type of customer that is quite often left feeling very dissatisfied at great cost to the business.

Remember a satisfied customer is a repeat customer!