Customer requirements management
Customer requirements management is a way to identify, assess, confirm, follow up, and manage requirements from customers and other requirement owners. It helps you show how your products and services meet customer requirements and other applicable requirements.
A good first step is collecting feedback from customers, business intelligence, or marketing tools.
Depending on the industry you operate in, the requirements can be more formal and often come from standards or legal requirements.
Once the requirements have been identified, they need to be analyzed to determine if it is realistic to meet them. This means investigating what resources are required, whether there are any technical or financial constraints, and whether it is possible to meet the requirements at all.
Then you must develop measures to meet the requirements. This may involve implementing processes, improving the product or service, developing new features, improving customer service, or improving quality.
Finally, you need to document relevant changes and monitor customer requirements and expectations.
An example of how a customer requirement can be formulated
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Requirement | Certification 9001:2015 or systematic quality work |
| Legislation, certification, other areas | CUSTOMER1, CUSTOMER2. Legislation (LOU) |
| Knowledge | Quality |
| Relevant to the company? | Yes |
| Summary of requirements and/or justification of why they are not relevant to the company | That the company and its subcontractors are certified according to ISO 9001:2015 or another equivalent quality standard or work systematically to ensure the quality of the products/services they deliver |
| Summary of how the company meets the requirement | The company is certified according to ISO 9001:2015 and uses supplier assessments to follow up requirements for relevant subcontractors |
| Relevant to processes | Sales, Delivery, Continuous Improvement |
| Our internal knowledge guru | Joakim Stenström |
The question of who benefits from our work with customer requirements management is a very relevant question to ask. Below we list a couple of different types of stakeholders and what value is created for them:
Salesperson
Customer requirements management is great for salespeople because it helps them focus on understanding what customers need, want, and most importantly, why they need it.
By understanding the customers’ needs, sales reps can create solutions that better suit the customers’ needs and get better results.
It also helps to improve customer loyalty by ensuring that even the requirements that customers don’t directly talk about are met.
Product Developer
Product developers can take advantage of the customer requirements management process to understand and define the requirements to create a product that will meet customer needs.
By managing customer requirements, product developers can also ensure that their products and services meet all the requirements set by customers.
Customer Service Personnel
Customer service needs to understand the customers’ needs and expectations to provide the best service based on the customer’s conditions.
Understanding customer requirements enables high-quality service that meets customer expectations.
Marketer
Marketers can take advantage of customer requirements management to understand customer needs and expectations and to create marketing that meets customer requirements.
By managing customer requirements and demands, marketers can ensure that their marketing is aligned with the actual needs of customers and that we are marketing the right things.
CEO
The CEO needs to understand the needs and expectations of the customers and to ensure that the company’s products and services are cost-effective and meet the customers’ requirements.