The way a business integrates supply and demand can greatly affect the level of satisfaction among clients and customers. Unfortunately, many companies manage their operations in a way that creates a divide between the goods they can obtain and how they are able to sell them.
The Great Divide
Companies often run into situations that force them to sell excess inventory at reduced prices. They also end up losing sales because their inventories are inadequate. In either of these situations, customer satisfaction may suffer. Research from the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology reveals that business owners tend to ignore customer service when they feel strained to liquidate their products. The reason for this is that they feel that they don't owe anything else to customers beyond great prices. Naturally, customer service will also suffer when buyers find that the goods they wish to purchase are not available.
Learning to Manage Supply and Demand
Proper integration of supply and demand is not always easily accomplished. Strategies such as product differentiation, cost leadership and branding cycles must be balanced, and this requires a certain know-how. Many business owners who wish to master these strategies often end up taking online courses towards earning a masters degree in business administration online. This can positively impact outcomes in today’s increasingly complex global business landscape.
Achieving Customer Satisfaction Efficiently
The financial performance of a company does not always correlate adequately to customer satisfaction; in fact, customer satisfaction often comes at a very high cost to business owners. The mantra of happy customers being good for business goes back to the 19th century days of Montgomery Ward and his penchant for offering money-back guarantees to customers who had not been fully satisfied. There is no doubt that customers need to be treated right, but at what cost? Amazingly, studies by the MIT Sloan School indicate that customer satisfaction among major corporations affect no more than three percent of market return.
The Bottom Line of Inventory, Sales and Customer Satisfaction
In many cases, companies that are able to strike the right balance between supply and demand do not have to go overboard in terms of customer service. Some specialty enterprises such as luxury goods providers will be forced to go the extra mile for customers, but will not always be the case. Entrepreneurs with masters degrees in administration are more likely to understand customer motivation, and thus they can formulate a customer service strategy that does not break the bank.
