This paper examines the customer perspective of the Balanced Scorecard as applied by three small businesses: Hyde Park Electronics, Futura, and SGC. Drawing on Gumbus (2006) and Niven (2011), the paper analyzes the specific customer-focused measures each company employed, evaluates whether those measures were truly customer-centric, and assesses whether the customer perspective was the key driver of improved performance. The paper also proposes an additional measure — integrating customer needs with operational efficiency — that could have strengthened each company's approach. The discussion highlights the importance of product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy as interconnected dimensions of customer value.
Hyde Park Electronics concentrated on the quality of the product delivered in order to determine customer perspectives. The measures used to achieve these objectives were manufacturing and labor efficiency, as well as new product sales. Futura, by contrast, focused on customer perceptions about the products and services they were receiving. To measure this, the company randomly contacted customers and examined how employee retention affected the underlying quality of the product. SGC, meanwhile, was concerned about the quality of the orange juice it was selling to retail customers, and analyzed its effectiveness at meeting that goal by concentrating on customer feedback (Gumbus, 2006, pp. 407–425).
These measures are genuinely customer-centric. All three companies focused on several distinct customer perspectives, including product leadership, operational excellence, and customer intimacy. This approach helped them concentrate on the potential impact they could have in the marketplace and with customers, as they examined the viewpoints of individual customers and what mattered most to each of them. By doing so, each company was able to identify and address specific customer needs (Gumbus, 2006, pp. 407–425; Niven, 2011).
According to the Balanced Scorecard framework, the customer perspective asks organizations to define the value proposition they will deliver to customers and to identify the measures that reflect how well that value is being provided. The approaches taken by Hyde Park Electronics, Futura, and SGC each align with this definition: they sought direct or indirect feedback from customers and tied internal processes to outcomes that customers care about, such as product quality, service consistency, and responsiveness.
The most effective way of evaluating each business was based upon the perspective of the customer. Customers can be very demanding, and they want their specific needs addressed. Those organizations that can provide the best products and services are able to achieve these objectives, and it is at that point that they begin to see increases in productivity and improvements in their underlying profit margins (Gumbus, 2006, pp. 407–425).
The customer perspective, as described by Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Scorecard model, is not simply one of four equally weighted dimensions — for many firms it is the lens through which the other perspectives gain their meaning. In the cases of Hyde Park Electronics, Futura, and SGC, prioritizing what customers valued most created a clear strategic direction that aligned internal processes, learning, and financial outcomes.
"Customer focus as the primary performance driver"
"Proposed improvement integrating efficiency with customer needs"
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