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Exceeding Customer Satisfaction by Creating and Delivering Customer Value in Software Development Organizations

Udhayakumar SP*, Meenakshisundaram Sivasubramanian

“Value” is the customer's perception of the proportion of benefits received against the costs incurred to consume a product or service from a vendor. A customer’s perception of “value” is always two-fold i.e., (1) Direct utility from the product or service (functionality, stability, security, speed, design alternatives, flexibility, standard compliance, etc.) and (2) Relationship aspects (Product expertise of the vendor, vendor’s ability to partner and provide solutions based on market trends, and running social programs for the customer, etc.), in short, any deliverable or activities which will help the customers achieve their business objectives. Merely delivering as per the contract does not, please today’s customers anymore and is not accounted as value delivery. Vendors are expected to go beyond the stated and agreed requirement, understand the needs of the customer’s business, align with their strategies, and incorporate them into their product delivery. The key to meeting these expectations is, getting the right perspective of what is valuable to the customer and an understanding that it changes from customer to customer depending on the sector, geography, market needs, etc.

“Value” creation is a continuous process throughout the software lifecycle. Since there are no definitive guidelines to support the identification of what is valuable for customers, the Author suggests discussing creating a “value providing culture” so that by default the organisation will be value-oriented and deliver value to its customer. In such a state, the value required by the customer is inherent in the product or the services delivered.

Value culture comprises three-dimension tenets (1) Value creation (2) Value engagement and (3) Value delivery. The author attempts to detail these value dimensions in this paper and elaborate on how these value dimension tenets help in creating Value culture in the organisation which in turn would lead to customer delight.