7. Summary

„Es ist nicht genug zu wissen, man muß auch anwenden; es ist nicht genug zu wollen, man muß auch tun.“

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832), German writer and poet

This thesis shows how important customer loyalty, customer satisfaction and the customer as such are in today’s world of business. For long-term success it is not sufficient to rely on a high quality products or first-class services. The best product or best service is useless, if the customer does not understand or see the added value of this product. It is the customer alone, who decides on the success or failure of a company. The customer’s perception is the truth and thus, elements such as customer satisfaction, complaints management and other different aspects of customer management need to be a core strategic element of a success-oriented company. All these key performance indicators are linked together and result in a company’s success and growth. The following graphic shows these relations in a simplified way:

Figure 17: Relation of key factors for success

In order to find the right activities and approaches, you have to know the expectations and the needs of your customers. Only if you meet or exceed these expectations, consumer’s experiences will be positive which lead to satisfaction and customer loyalty. This loyalty is reflected in recommendations, positive word-ofmouth and repurchases, which manifest in long-term success and growth of the company.

This mechanism must be understood and practiced at all levels of the company and all employees need to be involved in knowing, meeting and serving customers.

The Fresenius Kabi customer satisfaction survey was a very good start to learn about the customer’s view and perception about Fresenius Kabi as provider of generic drugs. Now it is up to the company to continuously monitor and stay in close touch with customers and to take the results, understand areas of improvement and to act according to these findings. Because as Goethe already claimed:
“Knowing is not enough, we must apply; willing is not enough, we must do.”