The competitive environment is changing. First, the Internet-connected global economy creates unprecedented choices for customers and gives them greater control of the way they do business. These empowered customers force an ever-increasing commodity leveling of products and services on the global chemical marketer. Second, the slowdown in the U.S. manufacturing business segment makes it difficult to continue growing sales revenues. Third, complicating matters for individual chemical firms is the economic reality that it costs a company more to attract new customers than it does to retain existing ones.
Because of this, customer maintenance has become a competitive advantage. In this new economic landscape, astute chemical executives realize that growth of sales and profit depends on the only remaining source of sustainable competitive advantage — the customer relationship. The essence of this relationship is the “value” the customer places on the supplier’s role. The higher this perceived value by the customer, the stronger is the “loyalty” to the supplier. Therefore, to survive — and thrive — organizations should build interdependent business relationships with customers based on mutual trust and benefit.