"Literature Review: Customer Relationship In New Product Development"

Abstract

Meeting customer expectations are vital for any firm to grow. Engaging the customers in any new product development provides customer satisfaction and connects to the society. Based on the necessity, customer engagement can be made online through social media or in person.  However, involving customer’s, receiving their feedback on, and functioning the product attracts to many customers, users, and stakeholders.  Having good customer interaction does not mean the customers stick to the brand or the product. A continuous effort must be made by the consumers to have a strong connect with the customers to enhance the growth of the business. There are many variables for consumers to drive on this customer interaction and it varies from each customer. Customers should feel overwhelmed with the time, money and effort spent in purchasing the product. Customer engagement and involvement in any new product development process is crucial. For the product to be launched as per the schedule, meeting the customer requirements needs good support from supplier’s as they play an important role in supplying the components for assembly into the product. A good customer supplier relation helps in strengthening the firm’s performance, delivering a quality product with subsided transactional cost. Many studies have been made keen on the customer relationship on new product development, therefore many researchers proposed that customer satisfaction could be considered as the major component for a successful launch of a product to market. The study in this paper provides a thorough review of customer relationship with supplier and their interaction with consumers on a new product development and how companies adapt suitable approaches to engage and involve customers.