Customer Orientation and Firm Performance with Reference to Licensed Commercial Banks in Galle District: Proposals for Improvements
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Date
2011
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Uva Wellassa University of Srilanka
Abstract
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Most markets are moving towards a more market and customer oriented approach as customers have become more knowledgeable and required more variety and better quality of the products. Accordingly, customer orientation is the set of beliefs that puts the customer's interest first, while not excluding those of all other stakeholders such as owners, managers, employees in order develop a long term profitable enterprise (Deshpande et at., 1993). Tailor (2007), illustrates that marketing is not about providing products and services, it is essentially about providing changing benefits to the changing needs and demands of customers.
The financial system in Sri Lanka is one of the rapidly booming sectors in the economy. It is comprised with different aspects and different financial institutions. Banking industry is playing a vital role in the Sri Lankan financial system and the foremost division within the banking industry is Licensed Commercial Banks (LCBs) (Central Bank, Sri Lanka, 2009).
LCBs is the single most important category of the financial institutions in the banking sector in terms of asset base and the magnitude of services provided. However, in case of facing the huge competition within the industry, the companies have been introducing new systems and innovative approaches to attract customers.
In case of providing the services to the customers, the service should be offered in such a way that it is fast, efficient and friendly. The company should be able to identify the customer needs and wants clearly and fulfill them satisfactorily at the right time. Companies should be able to build up healthy relationships with their customers by being customer oriented and this has become an essential matter of conducting the business today. Accordingly, in the modern business environment, customer is considered as the king and therefore customer orientation in business practices has been a dominant strategy in the business field. This has been identified as a major tool in the modern context of business so as to beat the competition.
With such a background, the major objective of this study was to examine the relationship between customer orientation and firm performance in LCBs Sector. In addition, the second objective was to demonstrate the strategies that can be used by LCBs sector to improve the firm performances through customer orientation.
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Keywords
Financial Management, Communication Skills, Marketing