Taiwan’s level of customer orientation has been rated the fifth-highest in the world, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said yesterday.
Referring to the Global Competitiveness Report 2007-2008 published by the Swiss-based World Economic Forum (WEF), the council said the ranking represented an advance of five notches from the previous survey and was the best performance by Taiwan since 2001. The four economies that received the highest ratings in terms of their customer focus in the latest report were Austria, Japan, Switzerland and South Korea.
Taiwan has been making progress in customer orientation competitiveness thanks to the efforts of businesses to build long-term partnerships with their customers, the report said.
Taiwan was in 10th place for customer orientation in the 2001-2002 report, then climbed to sixth between 2002 and 2006, but dropped to 10th again in 2006-2007.
The council said an “experience economy” emphasized the creation of positive user experiences, and that in this environment the competitiveness of businesses depends largely on the ability to track the needs and lifestyles of consumers.
The best examples of these abilities in Taiwan were the development of low-price notebook computers, digital cameras, digital photo frames and smart phones by domestic firms, which appeal to a rising group of price-conscious consumers, the council said.
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