The more you know about a customer the better.

Introduction
Listening to the voice of the customer is a fundamental of marketing. Needs and value assessment provides valuable inputs to product development, customer support services, logistics, and marketing communications. Customers will not only tell you what products and services they need, but which aspects of those products and services are most important in the supplier selection process and how well you perform on those attributes relative to your direct competitors. Customers can also tell you if they receive good value for those products and services, given their cost. Competitive suppliers may offer varying levels of service and/or product quality, and yet offer equal value to the customer, due to differences in cost. Understanding which product features and service attributes are most important to customers, and how your company performs relative to competitors on those factors, allows for better allocation of resources for improvement efforts and development activities....