Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

Since the interests of different user groups varies, and what they receive or desire from the
products or services of an organization are not always the same – it is natural that an organization
may be good for one user or in one respect, and bad for other users or in other respects.
Customers
According to the ‘free encyclopaedia’ customer is someone who makes use of the paid products of
an individual or organization. This is typically through purchasing, or renting, or receiving services.
The word historically derives from ‘custom’, meaning ‘habit’; a customer was someone who
frequented a particular shop, who made it a habit to purchase goods of the sort the shop sold there
rather than elsewhere, and with whom the shopkeeper had to maintain a relationship to keep his or
her ‘custom’, meaning expected purchases in the future. The shopkeeper remembered the sizes
and preferences of his or her customers, for example. The word did not refer to those who
purchased things at a fair or bazaar, or from a street vendor (www.en.wikipedia.com).
Thus, the more relevant definition of customer may, probably, sound like a permanent or returning
client. In market relations, customer often means loyal client, or someone who keeps purchasing
from the same provider in spite of the availability of alternatives. Normally, this is because he or
she is happy with the quality and price of the service and finds it more practical to stay with the
same provider. The number of customers, or the market share of customers is very good index of
an organization’s success.
The idea of an unhappy customer who continues to buy from the same organization is nonsense in
an open and competitive market. But it is common in the case of monopoly. In a monopoly, the
number of customers and the price they pay say nothing about quality of service and efficiency of
the organization or provider. It does, however, indicate the urgency of need for the product, and
number of people who share that need. That is why monopolies are often badly managed. They do
not need better management to survive. They only need sufficient management to enable them to
maintain their monopoly.
For public services - most consumers are customers, not necessarily because they are happy, but
simply because they have no alternative. Very often certain public utilities also represent a kind of
monopoly – because of the legislated authority of administrative bodies, no one else can issue a
building permit - or because of the peculiarity of the service, which cannot be purchased and
consumed individually (i.e. clean air, well-lighted streets). So, the number of customers and even
the price they pay (if obliged to pay directly for service) says nothing, in this case, about the quality
of service or efficiency of the organization that provides it.
78