THE CONCEPT OF CUSTOMER ORIENTATION

“Customer orientation” has been defined in various ways (Kohli et.al., 1990;Narver et.al., 1990; Webster, 1988). It is usually associated with other terminologies, such as “market orientation”, “customer focus”, “customer-driven”, and “customer-centred”. According to the definition Webster (1994), “customer orientation” is the business of putting the customer first in everything the company does, and organizing all activities around the basic objective of delivering superior values.

From the perceptive of government (Customer Carter ,Public Civil Services Department 2008 ) customer orientation should follow these elements:
1. Taking immediate actions
2. Accurate in decision making
3. Good customer services
4. Punctual in time
5. Fair in judgment making
6. Services and information are easier obtained and accurate
7. Consistent with the laws, policy and regulation.

The mission of Public Civil Services is “ customer satisfaction is our first priority “. Nevertheless the services provided must beyond the ordinary ( Ismail Alias 2008 ).

According to Periatt et.al., ( 2007 ), employees’ customer orientation has received significant research attention for several reasons. First, customer oriented employees are expected to raise customer satisfaction by delivering outstanding performance. Second, the human resources perspective of internal marketing is based on the premise that creating satisfied and motivated employees is needed for success and organizations should treat each employee as an internal customer. Human resource practices are expected to affect internal customer orientation significantly and positively and managers have been urged to “focus on customer oriented attitudes when hiring new employees”.