Research among senior management from The Times Top 1000 companies on which areas of business management create success, shows that 70 per cent of business leaders place customer focus as their first or second priority, yet practical demonstrations of that commitment are limited. 

One hundred per cent of companies put customer satisfaction as the top measurement of success yet less than 24 per cent believe that management hours spent with customers are important.  And while 76 per cent claim to have a database designed for target marketing they place little value on developing relationships with those customers. 

The report found a correlation between the measurement of customer satisfaction and successful commercial performance.  Ninety per cent of those companies showing a 15 per cent increase in turnover did measure customer satisfaction and the figure rose to 92 per cent for those with a turnover increase of 20 per cent. 

The report shows that only 34 per cent of companies see it as important to train their staff in customer service skills and less than 60 per cent used customer-based criteria to measure staff performance. "How are staff supposed to be focused on the customer if they are not trained or rewarded to do so?" 

Other key criteria identified by the sample as essential for success include setting  clear objectives for management; matching a product or service with customer needs; strategic planning to meet market and customer demand; a shared focus on the customer across all levels of the organisation; and clear company values which are understood by all the staff. 

But when asked which criteria companies actually use to measure success the answer was financial and short-term measures such as pre-tax profits.