Valerie Mathieu - A Customer-oriented Manager for B2B Services

The impact of customer orientation on factors such as return on investment (ROI), sales volume, market share and sales growth was quickly identified. Studies based on different methodologies have validated the link between customer orientation and performance, including:

– a meta-analysis of 114 empirical studies (Kirka et al. 2005): the results of 114 empirical studies on the effects of market and customer orientation on performance were analyzed. The results show that market and customer orientation have an impact of 20% on a company’s ability to innovate, 10% on its market share and 7% on its profits and sales;

– a longitudinal study over three periods (Kumar et al. 2011): the observation of the same sample of companies, in 1997, 2001 and 2005, showed that the first companies to have adopted a market orientation benefited from an impact that was twice as strong on their sales and profits, compared to companies that adopted this orientation later;

– an analysis based on a sample of 7,500 French companies (Pekovic and Rolland 2012): the relationship between customer orientation and EBITDA per employee was highlighted. The relationship appears to be stronger the more the company operates in a competitive, growing and uncertain market.

If we consider the strategic dimension of company performance, it is widely accepted that market and customer orientation have an important impact on building a sustainable 4competitive advantage. It is by keeping abreast of what customers expect, how their preferences evolve and change, and by disseminating this information widely internally, that the company and its members can identify the resources needed to build the value expected by the markets, and thus maintain a sustainable competitive advantage. By going beyond the simple observation of current customer expectations, and by asking questions about the evolution of these expectations, the company puts itself in a position to capture latent market expectations more quickly than its competitors and thus to strengthen its competitive position over time (Narver et al . 2004).

Customer orientation can be expected to trigger positive attitudes and behaviors from the customer. Customer satisfaction is of course the most important consequence of customer orientation. As a corollary to this satisfaction, the customer’s positive word of mouth is more active and thus has an impact on the company’s reputation. Customer loyalty is also easier to build from a stronger customer relationship (Mullins et al . 2014). Knowledge of markets, consideration of customer expectations and preferences makes it possible for the company to develop and perform better services (Hartline et al . 2000).

The employee, immersed in a customer-oriented culture, should more naturally engage in building strong and lasting relationships with the customer. It is the values, attitudes and behavior of the customer-oriented employee that will increase the customer’s trust and encourage the latter to behave cooperatively with the service provider (Poujol and Siadou-Martin 2012). It is, therefore, not surprising that customer orientation is an approach that is now in demand in the sales context (Julienne and Banikema 2017).

From a more social perspective, a number of empirical studies have sought to establish a relationship between a company’s customer orientation and the work attitudes of its employees. These studies have focused on variables such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment and involvement. Strong links between customer orientation and these variables have been consistently shown. Customer orientation would build esprit de corps among employees, greater job satisfaction as well as greater commitment 5.

While it is clear that customer orientation is a relevant strategic approach, the challenge is to implement it within the company. A gap may exist between what the company says about its customer orientation and what its customers say about it.

When it comes to customer orientation, it is not so much what the company says, but what the customer perceives. Cap Gemini Consulting, in a 2014 research report, highlighted this potential divergence: “56% of companies claim to be customer oriented. Only 12% of their customers approve!” 6

Top managers must have a strong and clear message about their commitment to customer orientation. The discourse must transmit a vision centered on this orientation, be able to mobilize energies by carrying a deep meaning beyond the conventional and act on the cognitive and affective organizational systems 7. The speech must be concrete, illustrated with real examples, stories and real-life experiences and animated by symbols in order to be as mobilizing as possible. The speech must be followed by strong and clear decisions about the organization, its structure and the chosen strategy. To be effective, customer orientation must be based on more fluid decision-making processes and more cross-functional collaboration between teams and departments. New organizational and management methods, like the agile method, which puts the customer at the heart of the process and encourages team autonomy and accountability, are likely to be effective in supporting the implementation of customer orientation.

Guillaume Faury, successively CEO of Airbus Helicopter, then of the civil aviation branch of Airbus and finally of the Airbus Group, has always put the customer first in his speeches:

We are starting the year under a new brand, Airbus Helicopters, which is for us much more than a new name, it touches the DNA of Airbus, it touches ambitions like customer satisfaction, quality, safety, industrial efficiency. 8

The first challenge for Airbus is obvious. It’s about serving our customers and ramping up production. 9

We need to prepare the Airbus of tomorrow in order to better serve our customers, increase our competitiveness and grow in a sustainable way. 10

The quality of management, and especially middle management, is widely considered to be the essential foundation for implementing customer orientation (Hartline et al . 2000). This is all the more true in a service environment where proximity to the field, the market and the customer is strong. The managerial challenge is twofold: managers must be personally involved in a customer orientation and must also lead their team in the direction of a customer orientation. They must set an example, be a reference in terms of behavior and attitude for their team. Their decisions and arbitrations must clearly show the priority given to the customer. They will also have to be attentive to the way in which their team lives this customer orientation. Customer relations and customer satisfaction are not always easy realities for employees. They must also encourage collaboration between teams, functions and departments. It is up to managers to allow their teams to break out of their strictly defined perimeters. There cannot be customer orientation without autonomy and risk-taking. Expected managerial skills are, therefore, inevitably enriched. While traditional skills, like technical skills for an engineer, remain essential, they are no longer sufficient to effectively implement customer orientation. This customer orientation becomes particularly sensitive in the context of the implementation of entrepreneurial projects with high technical content.