Customer departmentalization

Definition (1):

Customer departmentalization groups activities and resources in response to the needs of specific customer groups.

Definition (2):

“Customer departmentalization - Grouping activities on the basis of common customers or types of customers.”

Jobs can be grouped based on the customer type served by the company or organization. The concept is that customers in every department have a common type of needs and problems that may best be solved by specialists.

Definition (3):

When effectively serving various customer groups is greatly emphasized, this organizational structure or form is applied or used.

For example, full-time and part-time students of graduate and post-graduate business programs in colleges and universities generally are different in personal needs and demographic profile. Usually, full-time students attend classes in day shifts and part-time students attend classes in evening or night shifts.

The retail and wholesale public is so different in various industries like the customers of the government and non-government sectors.

Customer departmentalization has the following advantages:

• Facilitates focus on the needs of the customers.
• Offers a customer a feeling that s/he has a supplier who understands her/his requirements.
• Develops expertise in the area of customers.
• Saves the time of customers.