They surveyed more than 300 senior executives at mid-market companies across the US, asking them how they achieved growth in the past and how they expect to sustain it. (In addition to the survey, the folks from Forbes Insights interviewed executives from companies that were listed by Forbes as being among the 100 Best Small Companies in America for 2011.)
Their finding included these results:
One of the most consistent sets of findings across the
whole of the survey is that middle market companies appear to be operating with
a heightened awareness of the importance of a customer focus. Improving the
customer experience has already been highlighted as the priority most
frequently cited as extremely important. But responses to three additional
questions show that customer awareness and focus literally pervades middle
market mindsets.
For example, asked to identify the factors contributing
most to their organization’s growth, the most frequently cited is a focus on
customer experience – mentioned by 46% of respondents. Then in another
question, executives were asked to evaluate the criticality of a list of
potential external forces or game changers.
Here, four of the top five issues most frequently rated as
extremely significant all exact an impact on customer relationships, including:
pricing pressures, decreased customer budgets/spending, falling customer demand
and increased domestic competition.
And in a third survey question, executives were asked
where they would be focusing their resources going forward.
Here, three of the top four areas are again
customer-related, including: customer service, new product/service development
and sales.
All of the above underscores the middle market’s belief in
the importance of customer relationships. It also goes a long way towards
explaining why many middle market companies feel they need to devote greater
resources and attention to these issues.
http://www.forbes.com/forbesinsights/inspired/?BMO_VSC=HB^BMO^exFRB^DT10088^thlead
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