Customer-oriented organizations: a framework for innovation

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to acknowledge the importance of customer orientation in business organisations. The paper adopts a practical approach and delves into the relevant issues to present a conceptual framework and the steps that organisations could use to become customer-oriented.Design methodology approach - The methodology for this paper involves studying the relevant literature on customer orientation and highlighting the noteworthy findings of other researchers. Thereafter, based on the practices of leading companies with regard to customer orientation, the conceptual framework is developed and explained using suitable illustrations.Findings - The findings include the conceptual framework and the steps that lead to customer orientation for organisations.Originality value - Although customer orientation is a desirable characteristic for organisations, it is also not easy for organisations to determine the precise issues and the approach that needs to be adopted for achieving customer orientation. This paper presents the framework and the steps pertaining to customer orientation that can be adopted by organisations.