If you don’t know what your customers want, it’s pretty darned hard to give it to them. Sometimes organizations, even entire industries, have the attitude of “we know what’s best for the customer.” Organizations have the misguided belief that “we’re really tuned into the needs of our market,” when in fact they are out of touch with changing demands.
Two industries come to mind, automobiles and computers. Automobiles for years in the US had the same style and gas guzzling performance, while market share fell. It took GM going bankrupt, before they finally are starting to get it right. Computers on the other hand were thought of as square boxes and add-ons, before Steve Jobs added style and pizazz to them.
Often it takes much more than an occasional survey to determine what your customers really want. You can’t develop meaningful measures until you have clear, specific requirements. In your quest to gather data to see how you stand in comparison to the competition, you may entirely ignore other areas where you are falling short. In the future, it will be the companies that really listen to their customers that are most likely to see long-term survival and success.