Customer Involvement in New Service Development

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 1,3, European Business School - International University Schloß Reichartshausen Oestrich-Winkel, course: Seminar Wintersemester 2006, language: English, abstract: 'There are three kinds of companies; those that simply ask customers what they want and end up as perpetual followers; those that succeed for a time in pushing customers in directions they do not want to go; and those that lead customers where they want to go before customers know it themselves' The perception of the customer in business has changed in the course of history, from a mere passive buyer and price taker to an active and vital participant in the market. Today consumers have access to a variety of information about companies and their products, therefore companies need to center their activities on this important market participant. Companies must take advantage of this development and include customers throughout their business model. Leading customers refers to discovering their current and future needs and engaging in joint activities. In the light of this, it is no longer enough to simply use marketing to create interest in the company and to built reputation; consumers have to be involved from the beginning of the process on, i.e. the innovation of new products and services. Therefore, companies face the challenge of creatinge an interface to their customer, thus enabling customers to shape products ac-cording to their needs. While possibilities of consumer involvement in new product development have received a lot of attention6, the opposite has to be said concerning new service development. This is surprising since in services the customer himself is an important part of the service delivery and thus is of great importance. Therefore, this paper aims at investigating the importance of customer involvement and the role customers can play in new service development as well as why and how a com-pany can benefit from this procedure.