Are Dairy Suppliers Meeting Customer Requirements?
A dairy industry customer perception study was required to assess how dairy suppliers were meeting international customer demands.
The Brief
An industry organisation required a detailed assessment of how its country’s dairy suppliers were meeting international customers’ expectations and requirements ‒ an issue of critical importance to the national industry.
Specifically, in buyers’ eyes:
- How competitive were the country’s suppliers compared with those from other countries?
- What were the typical strengths and weaknesses of the country’s industry as a supply source?
- How much progress was its suppliers making in addressing key issues?
Our Approach
In the results of previous customer perception studies, we found that lack of customer participation and direct customer contact posed significant challenges. Our approach was to improve on the methodology by delivering advantages in terms of:
- Understanding of the dairy commodity/ingredient marketplace ‒ its key players, recent developments and driving issues and concerns
- Global reach and contacts with buyers in diverse regions such as Asia, US, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and North Africa
- Cost-effectiveness
This enabled us to develop a clearer appreciation of buyers’ key issues and perceptions as a result of confidential face-to-face and telephone discussions with a wide range of food and beverage processors and foodservice dairy users.
Our Solution
The interview write-ups enabled us to compile a significant database of customer feedback.
This in turn fed into a detailed report, which provided segmented analysis across the target product groups and geographies.
In particular it evaluated where progress had / had not been made in the eyes of customers, permitting recommendations as to strengths to accentuate and areas deserving increased focus. The results were distilled into a presentation for a range of senior industry executives.
