CUSTOMER ORIENTATION IN LOGISTICS AS A FACTOR INFLUENCING BUSINESS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE CREATION

Firms are constantly looking for the ways and solutions leading to business competitive advantage creation. One of the most effective and efficient solutions of getting and maintaining sustained, long-term competitive advantage by a firm is to implement customer orientation in business management. First of all, customer orientation - perceived as a key component of market orientation - facilitates identification and fulfilment of a customer's needs and wants. In the recent years, apart from important place and role within the marketing concept, customer orientation has been more and more frequently taken into consideration in the logistics concept. The implementation of customer orientation in business management includes in particular: (1) the identification of customers' goals, needs and problems, as well as (2) the adjustment of a firm's offer (products and services) to the unique customer requirements and expectations. The effective and efficient customer orientation implementation in logistics and business management may significantly contribute to market (customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, market share) and economic (profit, profitability, ROI) outcomes achievement by a firm. These outcomes are not only the most significant symptoms of business success, but the basis for business competitive advantage creation as well. The article attempts to identify: (1) the most important dimensions of customer orientation, (2) the most significant possibilities of "embedding" customer orientation in logistics as well as (3) the significance of the logistics service in customer orientation development in the context of business competitive advantage creation.