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Customer orientation is often a taken-for-granted fundamental principle within the
management practice. Managers give emphasis to ³stay close to the customer´ and to ³put the
customer at the top of the organizational chart´ and consequently define the purpose of a
business as the creation and retention of satisfied customers. Many firms, however, tend to
fail to direct their businesses toward their customers. For managers in any type of businesses,
developing a customer-oriented organization is always a big challenge.
Since the late 1980s, marketing researchers have conducted a number of empirical
studies concerning customer-oriented organization in the name of ³market orientation´ (Kohli
& Jaworski, 1990; Narver & Slater, 1990). These studies mainly focus on antecedents and
consequences of a market orientation through cross-sectional surveys. Until now, however,
only a few researches have empirically investigated the question of ³how´ a firm can actually
be customer-oriented.
Hereafter, a ³customer-oriented organization´ is used to refer to an organization that
embodies the marketing concept. Internal dynamics of customer-oriented service
organizations. The extant conceptualizations of market orientation as an organizational
culture are insufficient. In these conceptualizations, organizational culture is assumed to be
homogeneous and unitary throughout the organization. By making such an assumption,
existing research solely focuses on the abstract and aggregated organizational activities, and
by so doing, neglecting the internal dimensions of a customer-oriented organization. This
paper adopts a cognitive perspective on organizational culture in order to focus on potential
heterogeneity among individuals and groups within a customer-oriented organization.
The paper firstly identifies the research problems by critically reviewing prior research
concerning customer±oriented organization and secondly presents the methodology of the
study. Next, the empirical findings from an exploratory investigation of two financial service
organizations are presented. Finally, the conclusions are presented by discussing implications
and directions for future research.
 

Recent empirical research regarding customer-oriented organization has its origin in the
management philosophy known as ³the marketing concept´ (Kohli & Jaworski, 1990). The
marketing concept has been a cornerstone of the marketing discipline since Drucker (1954)
argued that ³[t]here is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer´
(p.37) and described marketing as ³the whole business seen from customer¶s point of view´
(p.39). Throughout its history, however, the marketing concept has been more an article of
faith than a practical basis for managing a business. Little was known about the defining
features or attributes of this organizational orientation, and findings regarding the antecedents
and performance consequences were mainly anecdotal. Consequently, managers had little
guidance on how to improve or redirect their organizations toward their markets.

In the 1980s, a renewed interest in the marketing concept was born (Webster, 1988). With the
rise of Japanese businesses, the marketing concept was seen to be an organizational culture
that would provide a competitive advantage (e.g., Peters & Waterman, 1982). In response,
marketing researchers began to conceptualize the marketing concept more strictly. In the
1990s, two influential publications (Kohli & Jaworski, 1990; Narver & Slater, 1990) in the
h
 
 that originated from research sponsored by the MSI (Marketing Science
Institute) founded the basis of a new era (Deshpande, 1999). Subsequent research has been
using these publications as a point of reference and in the academic debate, the term ³the
marketing concept´ has been replaced by the term ³market orientation´.

 
 
 phrase heard frequently in the tourist industry and trade press is, "This is the internet
age". However, if we really think about it and look at the changes happening in tourist
companies, we realise that this is in fact the "customer age", customer being understood in
the broadest sense of the term referring not only to travellers as the end consumers of
services but also to any of the agents receiving tourist services from providers including
travel agencies, tour operators, reception agencies and travel portals.
New technologies are changing the traditional tourist model, new sales and communication
channels have been created and new agents have come on the scene. The distances
between customers and suppliers have been shortened. This has affected price structures
and has, in particular, greatly increased the number of impacts and sales opportunities all
along the customer consumer channel.
Despite these changes however, the traditional channel including many media such as fax,
telephone, meetings etc, still remains at the forefront, although the importance of



continues to grow, particularly amongst tourist companies. Tour operators are still
the core of the value chain and at the present time, they are the ones who create tourist
packages, liase with the agencies who issue them in order to distribute products amongst
the end-users, and liase with service providers via the reception agencies.
Depending on the relationship between customers and suppliers, there are basically two
types of electronic business: the one known as Business to Business or B2B between
companies, and another known as Business to Consumer or B2C which encompasses all
the relationships between companies and end-users.

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 is a courier and logistics service in the United Kingdom. Parcelforce
Worldwide is a part of Royal Mail Group Ltd.

Its international partner network allows it to extend its delivery reach worldwide. Its
European delivery partner, also part of Royal Mail Group Ltd, is called , ( 




) and delivers more than one million parcels a day across 34 countries in
Europe.

Parcelforce Worldwide is a direct competitor of other worldwide delivery brands such as

DHL, FedEx and UPS.

Parcelforce Worldwide operates a "hub and spoke" collection and delivery system with two
hubs based at Coventry, adjacent to the airport. One hub is for UK parcels and the other for
international parcels. The UK hub, one of the country's largest buildings, is a highly
automated tracking and sortation centre covering 43 acres (170,000 m2 ) which can handle up
to 40,000 parcels an hour.

Parcelforce Worldwide was the first express carrier in the UK to give its customers the option
of sending their parcels carbon-free. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parcelforce)


 

The Parcelforce Worldwide logo depicts a stylised globe with the brand name speeding
across the top. There was some debate in the late 1990s around the use of colors. Customer
research was carried out as to whether vehicles should be painted white (seen as clean) or red.
Red came out on top as people associated the color red as important and urgent. The colour
red is also strongly associated with the Royal Mail and Post Offices and lends more trust to
the brand.
In 2002, a blue band was added to the corporate marque and as new vehicles are
commissioned, red, white and blue liveries are being introduced.

In 2005, all staff were instructed to use the full brand name ³Parcelforce Worldwide´, rather
than the abbreviated ³Parcelforce´, to emphasise the company¶s global reach via Royal Mail
Group's GLS subsidiary.