2013 will be the year of the customer for all smart companies, not just retailers.

When times get tough consumers and B2B customers think more about what they buy and who they buy it from. Price will always be a consideration but making a good decision is even more important.  To help them make a good buying decision companies assess potential suppliers against three criteria:  Relationship, Expertise and Trust.  It’s what I call the RET Factor.

From a suppliers perspective anything they do which could negatively impact any of these three factors could result in fewer customers buying from them.  Of course the opposite is also true and anything that could positively impact a RET factor could led to increased sales and better customer loyalty.  That’s why companies are striving much harder to understand what their customers really want and why 2013 will be the year of the customer.

The first step is to understand how your customers rate you today. I do a lot of RET surveys and almost without exception companies think that their customers will rate them higher than they actually do. With evidence from surveys its much easier to decide what actions to take and what things to leave along. Without this evidence Corporations will continue doing what they think is best which is often not what customers want. Have a look at the survey results on our main website which will explain this in more detail.

Companies who understand and act on what their customers really want at every touch point will be the ones who are successful in 2013.