Prople Who Tried a Prodcut Were Satisfied and Bought It Again Are Called

14.three Client Satisfaction

Learning Objectives

1. Empathize satisfaction and satisfaction strategies.
2. Design a client satisfaction measurement organization.
3. Describe complaint direction strategies.

Customer Satisfaction Divers

What comes to mind when yous hear someone say, "A satisfied client"? Maybe it is an image of someone smiling with the pride of knowing he got a good deal. Or perchance information technology is the childlike look of happiness someone exhibits after purchasing a new pair of shoes that are just the right color. Whatever your picture of a satisfied client is, customer satisfaction is typically defined as the feeling that a person experiences when an offer meets his or her expectations. When an offer meets the customer's expectations, the customer is satisfied.

Improving client satisfaction is a goal sought past many businesses. In fact, some companies evaluate their salespeople based on how well they satisfy their customers; in other words, not only must the salespeople hit their sales targets, they have to practise and so in ways that satisfy customers. Teradata is one visitor that pays its salespeople bonuses if they see their customer satisfaction goals.

Client satisfaction scores have been relatively stable for the past few years every bit illustrated in Table xiv.2 "Industry-Average Customer Satisfaction Scores, 2000–2010". You might call up that if increasing the satisfaction of customers were, indeed, the goal of businesses, the scores should show a steady increase. Why don't they? Possibly it'due south considering just satisfying your customers is a minimal level of functioning. Clearly client satisfaction is important. Withal, it isn't a proficient predictor of a client'south time to come purchases or brand loyalty. For instance, 1 study of client satisfaction examined car buyers. Although the buyers rated their satisfaction levels with their purchases xc per centum or higher, but 40 percentage of them purchased the same brand of car the adjacent fourth dimension around (Lambert-Pandraud, et. al., 2005).

Table 14.2 Industry-Average Customer Satisfaction Scores, 2000–2010

	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Appliances	85	82	82	81	82	80	81	82	80	82	81
Computers	72	74	71	71	72	74	77	75	74	78	78
Electronics	83	81	81	84	82	81	80	83	83	85	85
Cars	80	80	80	fourscore	79	lxxx	81	82	82	82	83

Keep in listen, though, that satisfaction scores are a function of what the customer expected besides as what the company delivered. So the flat scores in Table 14.2 "Industry-Average Client Satisfaction Scores, 2000–2010" reverberate rise customer expectations as well every bit improved products. In other words, the better products become, the more it takes to satisfy consumers.

There is also a downside to continuously spending more than to satisfy your customers. Contempo research shows that firms that do then tin can experience higher sales revenues. However, after the additional spending costs are factored in, the net profits that effect are sometimes marginal or even negative. Nonetheless, satisfaction is non unimportant. A visitor'south performance on key factors is critical both in terms of the loyalty and satisfaction it generates among its customers (Souki & Filho, 2008).

Client Satisfaction Strategies

And so what or how much should you exercise to improve the satisfaction of your customer? If client satisfaction tin can be divers as the feeling a person experiences when an offering meets his or her expectations, then there are ii critical means to improve client satisfaction. The first is to establish appropriate expectations in the minds of customers. The 2d is to deliver on those expectations.

We know that dissatisfied customers are likely to tell many more friends about their negative experiences than satisfied customers are about good experiences. Why? Considering there'due south more drama in unmet expectations. A story about met expectations—telling a friend about a dark out that was average, for case—is boring. Jan Carlson, a former Scandinavian Airlines executive, was famous for promoting the concept of "delighted" customers. Carlson's idea was that delighting customers past overexceeding their expectations should result in both repeat business and positive give-and-take of rima oris for a firm. The fact that stories most plain old satisfaction are tiresome is also why influencer communities, such equally JCPenney's Ambrielle community, are so of import. Influencers have new offerings to talk about, which are interesting topics, and other buyers want to know their opinions.

Establishing appropriate expectations in the minds customers is a function of the prepurchase communications the seller has with them. If you lot gear up the expectations besides depression, people won't buy your offering. Just if you gear up the expectations besides high, you run the take a chance that your buyers volition exist dissatisfied. A common proverb in business organization is "underpromise and overdeliver." In other words, set consumers' expectations a bit low, and then exceed those expectations in gild to create delighted customers who are enthusiastic almost your product. A seller hopes that enthusiastic customers volition tell their friends nigh the seller's offering, spreading lots of positive discussion of mouth well-nigh information technology.

Figure fourteen.viii

Ritz-Carlton'southward employees are empowered and fifty-fifty given a budget to provide services that delight customers—not just run into their expectations.

Ane client satisfaction strategy that grew out of Carlson'southward idea of delighting customers is to empower customer-facing personnel. Client-facing personnel are employees that meet and interact with customers. In a hotel, this might include desk clerks, housekeepers, bellman, and other staff. Empowering these employees to drop what they're doing in club to practise something special for a client, for instance, can certainly please customers. In some organizations, employees are fifty-fifty given a budget for such activities.

Ritz-Carlton employees each have an annual budget that can be spent on customer service activities, such as paying for dry out cleaning if a client spilled red vino on a dress in the hotel'due south restaurant. Sewell Cadillac is famous for how its employees serve its customers. An employee volition fifty-fifty option up a customer up on a Lord's day if a Sewell-purchased car breaks downward. Other dealers might consul such a service to another company, but at Sewell, the same salesperson who sold the automobile might be the person who handles such a task. To Sewell, customer service is too important to trust to some other company—a company that mayhap won't feel the same sense of urgency to keep machine buyers as satisfied as Sewell does.

Companies like Ritz-Carlton also monitor Twitter and other social media then that any bug can be identified in existent fourth dimension. For example, one newlywed tweeted that the view exterior her window of another wall was no way to spend a honeymoon. A Ritz-Carlton employee caught the tweet and employees at the hotel responded with a room upgrade.

Empowerment is more than simply a budget and a job description—frontline employees also demand customer skills. Companies like Ritz-Carlton and Sewell spend a cracking deal of time and effort to ensure that employees with client contact responsibilities are trained and prepared to handle small and large challenges with equal ataraxy.

Another customer satisfaction strategy involves offering customers warranties and guarantees. Warranties serve as an understanding that the product will perform as promised or some form of restitution will exist made to the customer. Customers who are risk-averse find warranties reassuring.

One form of dissatisfaction is postpurchase dissonance, which nosotros described in Chapter 3 "Consumer Behavior: How People Make Buying Decisions". Recall that it is too chosen buyer's remorse. Postpurchase dissonance is more probable to occur when an expensive product is purchased, the buyer purchases information technology infrequently and has little feel with information technology, and there is a perception that it is a high-risk purchase. Many marketers address postpurchase racket past providing their customers with reassuring communications. For case, a boat dealer might send a heir-apparent a alphabetic character that expresses the dealer's commitment to service the boat and that also reminds the buyer of all the terrific reasons he or she purchased it. Alternatively, the dealer could have the salesperson who sold the gunkhole telephone the buyer to answer whatsoever questions he or she might have after owning and operating the boat for a couple of weeks.

Figure 14.9

Buy a new boat, and the dealer is likely to engage in reassurance communications designed to reduce any postpurchase racket and enhance your satisfaction with the offering. The communications might include phone calls from the salesperson who sold you lot the boat or letters from the dealer's service department.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction

To measure customer satisfaction, you need to able to understanding what creates it. Just request customers, "Are you satisfied?" won't tell y'all much. Nevertheless many companies often mensurate the satisfaction of their customers on the ground of only a few questions: "How satisfied were you today?" "Would you recommend the states to your friends?" and "Do you intend to visit us again?"

Effective customer satisfaction measures have several components. The two general components are the customer'south expectations and whether the organization performed well enough to meet them. A third component is the caste of satisfaction, or to put it in terms nosotros've used to describe exceptional operation, is the client delighted?

To figure out if a customer's expectations were met and they are delighted, more particular is usually required. Companies might break the offering into major components and ask how satisfied customers were with each. For instance, a restaurant might enquire the following:

• Were you lot greeted promptly by a host? By your server at your table?
• Was your order taken promptly?
• How long did you expect for your food?
• Was the nutrient served at the appropriate temperature?

These questions assume that each aspect of the service is equally important to the customer. Nonetheless, some surveys ask customers to rate how important they are. Other surveys simply "weight," or score, questions so that aspects that are known to be more important to customers have a greater bear on on the overall satisfaction score. For instance, a restaurant might find that prompt service, adept taste, and big portions are the only three factors that usually determine customers' overall satisfaction. In that case, the survey can exist shortened considerably. At the aforementioned fourth dimension, however, space should exist left on the survey and so customers can add any additional data that could yield important insight. This information can be used to find out if in that location are client service problems that a firm wasn't aware of or if the preferences of consumers in general are changing.

You will still find customer satisfaction survey cards that just ask, "How satisfied were you today?" "Would you recommend u.s. to your friends?" and "Practice you intend to visit us again?" The data obtained from these surveys can yet be useful if information technology'due south paired with a more comprehensive measurement program. For example, a sample of customers could be given the opportunity to provide more detailed data via another survey and the two surveys could exist compared. Such a comparison can assistance the visitor pinpoint aspects that need improvement. In add-on, the company has given every client an opportunity to provide input, which is an important part of whatever empowerment strategy.

Complaint Direction Strategies

When buyers want to complain most products or companies, they have many ways to do so. They can complain to the companies they're upset with, tell their friends, or circulate their concerns on the Cyberspace. People who use every Internet site possible to fustigate a company are called verbal terrorists. The term was coined past Paul Greenberg, a marketing analyst who authored the wildly popular book CRM at the Speed of Light.

Should companies worry almost exact terrorists? Mayhap so. A recent study indicates that client satisfaction scores could be less of import to a house's success or failure than the number of complaints its gets (Lou & Homburg, 2008). To measure the tradeoff between the two, customer satisfaction guru Fred Reicheld devised something called the net promoter score. The net promoter score is the number of recommenders an offering has minus the number of complainers (Reicheld, 2006). The more positive the score, the better the company's performance. According to another contempo written report, a visitor with fewer complaints is likewise more likely to have improve financial performance.

Studies besides show that if a visitor can resolve a client's complaint well, so the customer's attitude toward the company is improved, possibly even beyond the level of his or her original satisfaction. Some experts have argued, possibly jokingly, that if this is the case, a adept strategy might be to make customers mad and then practice a practiced job of resolving their problems. Practically speaking, though, the best practice is to perform at or beyond client expectations and then fewer complaints will be received in the first identify.

Customers will complain, though, no matter how hard firms try to meet or exceed their expectations. Sometimes, the complaint is in the form of a suggestion and simply reflects an opportunity to amend the feel. In other instances, the complaint represents a service or product failure.

When a complaint is made, the process for responding to information technology is as important equally the upshot. And consumers judge companies as much for whether their response processes seem off-white as whether they got what they wanted. For that reason, some companies create client service departments with specially trained personnel who can react to complaints. Other companies invest heavily in preparing all customer-facing personnel to respond to complaints. Still other companies outsource their customer service. When the service is technical, marketers sometimes outsource the resolution of complaints to companies that specialize in providing technical service. Computer aid lines are an instance. Technical-back up companies frequently service the estimator help lines of multiple manufacturers. A company that outsources its service still has to make certain that client complaints are handled as diligently every bit possible. Otherwise, customers volition be left with a poor impression.

Handling the Complaint Process

A good customer complaint treatment process involves the steps listed beneath. Note that ane step is to acknowledge the client's feelings. A client who is aroused or upset due to a failure does not want to be patronized or have his or her problems taken lightly. The state of affairs is of import to the customer and should exist important to the person listening and responding to the complaint.

• Listen carefully to the complaint
• Admit the customer's feelings
• Determine the root cause of the problem
• Offering a solution
• Proceeds agreement on the solution and communicate the process of resolution
• Follow up, if appropriate
• Record the complaint and resolution

Note that the complaint-resolution process involves communicating that process and gaining understanding on a solution, fifty-fifty if the customer sometimes might not like the outcome. He or she still needs to know what to look.

Finally, the complaint process includes recording the complaint. We stated earlier that a firm'south best strategy is to perform at or across the client's expectations so equally to minimize the number of complaints it receives in the commencement place. Analyzing your company's complaints can aid you identify weak points in a service procedure or design flaws in a product, as well as potential miscommunications that are raising customer' expectations unreasonably. To conduct this analysis, however, y'all demand a complete record of the complaints made.

A complaint record should reflect the main reason an offering failed. Typically, the failure tin exist attributed to 1 (or more) of the post-obit four gaps (Levy & Weitz, 2009):

1. The communication gap. Overstating the offering's performance level, thereby creating unrealistic expectations on the part of customers.
2. The cognition gap. Not understanding the client'due south expectations or needs, which then leads a company to create a product that disappoints the customer.
3. The standards gap. Setting performance standards that are too low despite what is known about the customers' requirements.
4. The delivery gap. Failing to see the functioning standards established for an offering.

You can attribute the complaints your visitor receives to one of the four gaps and and so employ the information to effigy out what must be done to set the problem, assuming you have one. If the problem is overstating the performance, then perchance your firm's marketing promotions materials should be reviewed. If information technology appears that the offer is simply not meeting the needs of your customers, then more than work should be done to identify exactly what they are. If your firm is aware of the needs of its customers but at that place is a gap between their requirements and the standards prepare for your firm's performance, then standards should be reviewed. Finally, your company's processes should be examined to ensure that standards are being met.

When the Smokey Bones chain of barbecue restaurants (endemic by Darden Restaurants) noticed falling profits, managers cut costs by eliminating some items from the menu. Unfortunately, these were the items that made the chain unique; once they were gone, at that place was null distinctive about the chain's offerings. When customers complained, servers replied, "Yes, a lot of people have complained that those products are no longer bachelor." Merely apparently, there was no process or mode to get those complaints to register with the company's management. Every bit a result, the company didn't realize why it was losing customers, and its profits continued to spiral downward. Many locations were airtight and the company filed for bankruptcy.

Go along in mind that the complaint handling process itself is subject to complaints. As we mentioned, customers desire a process that's off-white, even if the outcome isn't what they hoped for. Consequently, monitoring your house'south customer satisfaction levels also means y'all must monitor how satisfied customers are with how their complaints were handled.

Fundamental Takeaway

Measuring client satisfaction is an important chemical element of customer empowerment. Merely satisfaction alone is a minimal level of acceptable performance. It means that the customer's expectations were met. Getting positive discussion of mouth requires exceeding those expectations. To minimize the number of complaints a visitor needs an effective procedure of both handling complaints and understanding their causes and then whatever bug can be corrected. Because the complaint process itself is subject area to complaints, monitoring your firm's customer satisfaction levels also ways you lot must monitor how satisfied customers are with your visitor's complaint treatment system.

Review Questions

1. Should a company be happy or concerned if near customers are satisfied?
2. Why have client satisfaction scores remained relatively steady over the past few years?
3. What are the desired outcomes, from a marketer'due south perspective, of a complaint management process?
4. How would marketing direction use customer satisfaction survey results?

References

Lambert-Pandraud, R., Gilles Laurent, and Eric Lapersonne, "Repeat Purchasing of New Automobiles by Older Consumers: Empirical Evidence and Interpretations," Journal of Marketing 69, no. 2 (2005): 97–106.

Levy, Grand. and Barton Weitz, Retailing Management, 7th ed. (Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Colina, 2009.)

Lou, 10. and C. Homburg, "Satisfaction, Complaint, and the Stock Value Gap," Journal of Marketing 72, no. iii (2008): 29–43.

Reicheld, F., The Ultimate Question: Driving Good Profits and True Growth (Boston: Harvard Business concern Press, 2006).

Souki, Yard. and Cid Chiliad. Filho, "Perceived Quality, Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty: An Empirical Study in the Mobile Phones Sector in Brazil," International Journal of Internet and Enterprise Direction 5, no. 4 (2008): 298–314.

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Source: https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmarketing/chapter/14-3-customer-satisfaction/

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