Customer Requirements

Customer Requirements Reviewer

Customer Requirement

Customer requirements are the specific characteristics that the customers need from a product or a service. These include functional specifications, performance standards, design constraints, and subjective factors like aesthetics and user experience.

Customer Requirement: Importance

Meeting customer requirements is crucial for satisfaction and loyalty. It aligns the product/service with market demands and guides businesses in prioritizing features during development.

Types of Customer Requirement

There are two main types of customer requirements:

• Service Requirement
• Output Requirement

Service Requirement

An intangible service that cannot be touched but can be felt by the customer. Elements include on-time delivery, friendly service, easy payment, etc. It covers how a customer expects to be treated and how smooth the purchasing process is.

Service Requirement: Components

1. Performance Requirements: The service must meet performance criteria like speed, reliability, and availability. Example: Cloud storage must be available 99.9% of the time.

2. Operational Requirements: How the service is delivered, including staffing and processes. Example: 24/7 customer support requires trained personnel around the clock.

3. Compliance Requirements: The service must meet legal or regulatory standards. Example: A financial service must comply with GDPR.

4. Quality Requirements: The service must maintain quality standards for customer satisfaction. Example: A cleaning service must use eco-friendly products and ensure thorough cleaning.

Service Requirement: Importance

Ensures service consistency, helps with resource planning, and reduces risks of non-compliance or performance failures.

Output Requirement

A tangible product or characteristic that customers expect to be fulfilled. Services may take the form of output requirements when customers use them as products.

Output Requirement: Characteristics

1. Specificity: Clearly defined expectations for the final product. Example: A report generated in PDF format with specific data.

2. Measurability: The output is measured against predefined criteria like quantity or quality. Example: A factory must produce 1,000 units per day with quality standards.

3. Consistency: The output must be uniform across different iterations. Example: Every cookie from a bakery should have the same taste, size, and shape.

4. Timeliness: The output must be delivered within the agreed time frame. Example: A project deliverable must be submitted by a specific deadline.

Output Requirement: Importance

Ensures the final product meets customer expectations, provides a benchmark for evaluation, and aids in resource allocation and process optimization.

Relationships and Differences

Customer requirements focus on what the customer wants, while output requirements define the actual deliverables that meet those wants. For example, a customer might require a secure online payment system, and the output requirement is a system with encryption and fraud detection.

Service requirements are about the conditions necessary to deliver the service effectively, while output requirements focus on the final product or result of that service. Example: A high-speed internet service (output) relies on having a strong network infrastructure (service).

Summary

• Customer Requirements drive what the product or service should achieve.
• Service Requirements define the conditions needed to meet those customer expectations.
• Output Requirements specify the exact results or products that must be delivered.

How to Know What Your Customer Requirements Are?

• Surveys
• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Observation
• Review of Existing Data
• Market Research

Why is it Important to Know Your Customer Requirement?

Customer requirements are essential for:

• Product/Service Development
• Competitive Advantage
• Increased Sales and Revenue
• Customer Satisfaction
• Improved Quality
• Innovation
• Brand Loyalty