What does the customer Really need?

You develop a product/information system and you think that you need to improve the quality so that more people will buy your product or use your information system. Then you improve the quality and you get good results. This encourages you to do more quality improvement and then you get better results.

However, sometimes, you improve the quality you get nothing. This is very unusual but I think that it happens becuase you have already reached exceeded the customer expectations regarding quality. So, your quality improvement will not make the customer more willing to buy your product or use your information system.

Sometimes, you get negative feedback from some potential customers/users. You try to satisfy those customers so that they will change their mind and buy your product. However, you may find that they do not react to your improvement regarding their comments. This is a very critical issue. It seems that some potential customers will not buy your product/information system no matter what you do regarding quality. They have other reasons to not use your product. Actually, they didn’t tell you the real reasons and told you some imaginary reasons. Why? Simply they don’t want to tell you the real reasons.

When you develop a product, you make studies and consult the potential customer. Later, you check the negative feedback and try to make changes to cover those comments. However, you should go back first and think if those changes are aligned with your product positioning. You should think whether those changes will have negative effect on other customers.

Improving quality is generally required but you should think deeply whether the customer needs quality improvement or other things. When you get negative  feedback, you should think whether this feedback is real. You should know if those customers may really buy your product or they have some hidden reasons to ignore your product. When you try to improve your product, you should not forget the main concept of the product and the main target customer needs. You should not lose focus. It is about who is our REAL potential customer and what do they REALLY need.

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How are you using e-business?

E-business is part of our life. Most companies are using e-business in some or all parts of its business. But the question is: What benefits have you got from using the e-business? Many companies achieved competitive advantage and improved their processes through e-business. Others have applied the e-business without achieving that success. Why did those succeed and those failed? Besides the technical problem that may arise, the following managerial reasons seems to be common in many organizations

• There are many areas in which you can use information systems but you need to have priorities according to your situation, strategy, competitors, customers…This is not an easy task. Where to apply the e-business and how to apply it? It is not something that can be copied. The answer is unique for every company.
• Meeting the customer (user) needs. Many information systems are not considering the users needs. It is very important to conduct system analysis and to understand the users’ needs. It is important to encourage the user to comprehend his needs prior to, during and after developing the system.
• Data base updating. Some companies do not put enough effort in updating the data and make sure the data are correct
• Top management support. Top management has a big role in changing the culture and showing great support to e-business.
• e-business is accelerating the the failed systems. e-business needs some process reengineering to eliminate unnecessary steps and complicated systems. Otherwise e-business will result in automating those bad systems.