Absence of external benchmarks to assess as-is position.

Explaining the "Gallup Path", a flow chart prepared by Gallup to explain the rationale for companies to become more savvy to customer satisfaction, Mathew said that real time profit of a company will lead to its stock increase and real time profit comes only through a sustainable growth rate.

A sustainable growth rate, in turn, is dependent on the local customer base. Stressing on the importance of retention of customers, which is far easier and less expensive than creating a new customer base, is therefore a better strategy for companies to follow, according to Mathew.

To develop and retain a loyal customer base, an organisation should strive for engaged employees, and the latter depends on creating great managers. ``Onlythrough great management can employees remain engaged with a company,'' opined Mathew.

He insisted that to generate great managers, what is essential is whether a particular manager fits in the right spirit into a particular job. ``Identifying strengths within the organisation, and acting in that direction will lead to real time profits and the subsequent increase in stock for an organisation,'' said Mathew.

According to Mathew, customer satisfaction comes not from providing the basic and expected qualities of a product to the customer, but when a company takes a step ahead to provide those qualities which are desired and unexpected. ``Customer loyalty can be built only if the customer is getting the value-added qualities which he may have desired for in addition to the basic and expected ones,'' he said.