Where Do Customer Demands Come From?

Originally posted at www.eginsight.com/news

When thinking about business-to-business customers, we rarely think about pizza chains – but maybe we should. Consider Domino’s Pizza: Advances in technology have helped improve their internal communication, shortened the time it takes to fulfill orders, and allow you to order a pizza online. Technology has been a huge part of Domino’s value proposition.

But they haven’t stopped there. In 2009, Domino's tore a page out of the UPS (www.ups.com/tracking/tracking.html) playbook to let their customers track their orders in real time. That’s right, using Domino’s Web-based “Pizza Tracker,” you can follow your pizza from order to prep, bake, quality check, and finally delivery. (To see the Pizza Tracker in action, follow this link: www.dominos.com/home/tracker/pizzatracker.jsp)

What does this mean if you don’t deliver pizzas, or don’t have customers demanding that kind of order visibility?

The takeaway is that your direct competitors aren’t the only benchmark for your customers’ expectations and preferences. Your customers’ requirements for things like responsiveness, quality, and support are influenced every day by many different companies.

The point is that customers – yes, even business-to-business customers – don’t experience your products or services on an island. After all, if customers can track a shipment online with UPS, why can’t they track their dinner too?

Asking the right questions when gathering feedback can uncover which products, services, or technologies shape your customers’ expectations. Having that knowledge can help you prioritize your investments based on real feedback, not just assumptions.

Nick Wassenberg
Research Analyst, E.G. Insight
www.eginsight.com