Sellers know things about companies their customers that customers do not know and can not find on their own more treasure. Because they come in contact with many and diverse buyers, sellers have a bird's eye view of the forest - the competitive environment in the industry - as opposed to customers who often see only trees. And they can use their experience to teach clients about their own business. This is not a question of disclosure of confidential aspects of client business to its competitors. The challenge is to put the whole industry in the long term knowledge that customers can use. Companies that can do that successfully reduce their costs to customers or operational risk and will be rewarded in turn with customer loyalty, price flexibility, or both. The authors lay out three strategies that companies can take to turn the view of the forest in customer value and competitive advantage for business. They also explain the company's actions to collect, aggregate, adapt and share customer experience. "Hide
by Niraj Dawar, All Vandenbosch Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 8 pages. Publication Date: December 1, 2004. Prod. #: SMR130-PDF-ENG
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