Is customer satisfaction enough? issues and challenges in creating competitive advantage through excellent customer relationship.

The effort to satisfy customers has turned businesses into customer oriented or customer-driven organisation. Companies have generally made every effort to take customer needs into account as far as possible in their operations. This perspective received special attention in the 1980s in the marketing of services. In the 1990s, customer satisfaction was emphasized. In the new millennium, businesses survive global competition by focusing on establishing relationships with their customers (Storbacka & Lehtinen 2001). It is within this premise that this paper aims to discuss the issues and limitations of focusing only on satisfying customers as a foundation for attracting new customers and maintaining the present one. Focusing solely on satisfying the customers is not enough as competition increases and better products or services are offered to customers. In addition cutting price would only serve the business in the short run. Thus, the author would like to suggest that businesses, manufacturers and service providers adopt an approach that would create value for the customer through excellent customer relationship. Once customers create value for themselves, they would likely become loyal customers.