Gaining Customer Satisfaction & Loyalty
Acquiring and retaining loyal customers is the heart of every
business. Marketing experts have rightly pointed out that the
actual value of the company comes from the customers. This
value implies the present value and the value an organization
can earn in the long run. Business and customers are
inseparable. Customer is the key to success for any business and
all other aspects come secondary. Building, keeping and growing
customers is the success mantra for any business. You don’t
have a business without a customer.
Managers who believe that the customer is the only true ‘profit centre’ of the company
consider the traditional organization as a pyramid with the president at the top,
management in the middle, and frontline people and customers at the bottom. Old Marketing Idea But successful marketing companies invert this pyramid. Customers: For a successful marketing initiative, the customer
is always at the top. In act, the customers are present all along the process. This means that indicate that
executives and managers at every level must perform their tasks keeping the end customer in mind.
Customer-facing Executives: Next in importance are
customer-facing executives. They form the bridge between the
company and the customers and the success of the company
depends on their ability to understand, serve, and satisfy the
customers.
Operations/Middle Management: In marketing companies,
the operational and mid-level management supports the frontline
executives to enable them to provide better customer
satisfaction.
Top Management: The job of the top management is to act as
the baseline for the entire process. They should provide strategic
direction and support through activities like recruitment,
positioning, and high level target setting.
Consumers are more informed than ever and they have the tools
to verify companies’ claims and seek out superior alternatives. It
is up to the customers to decide what kind of product or service
they want and which aspect of the product to value more.
Whether the offer lives up to the expectations of the customers
affects customer satisfaction and the probability that the
customer will purchase the product again.
Delivering high customer value
The level of loyalty to specific brands, stores and companies of a
consumer is entirely different from each other. This level of
loyalty is determined by certain qualities that the specific brands
or companies promise to convey in order to satisfy the entire
demands of the customers.
For example, ABC garments’ core positioning has been
“durability”, but the customer demands more than durability. The
other benefits demanded by the customer are comfort, color, and
long lasting. The purpose of customer is to achieve the highest
level of satisfaction from the company. However, the level of
satisfaction provided by the company depends on the company’s
capacity to supervise its value delivering system.
Value delivering system is the most vital element that associates
the customer value system. It also focuses on the experience
and feelings of the customer regarding the benefits and offers
acquired from the products and the services.
Total Customer Satisfaction
Whether the buyer is satisfied after purchase depends on the
offer’s performance in relationship to the buyer’s expectations,
and whether the buyer interprets any deviations between the
two. In general, satisfaction is a person’s feelings of pleasure or
disappointment that result from comparing a product’s perceived
performance (or outcome) to their expectations. The customers
are satisfied only when the product or the service is able to fulfill
their needs. However the satisfaction can reach the higher level
and make the customer delighted if the product or the service
goes beyond their level of expectation. Customer’s assessment of
product performance depends on many factors, especially the
type of loyalty relationship the customer has with the brand.
Consumers often form more favorable perceptions of a product
with a brand they already feel positive about. Although the
customer–centric firm seeks to create high customer satisfaction,
that is not its ultimate goal. In order to provide satisfaction to
the customers the company may occasionally change its business
policy. Increasing the quality and quantity of the services are
some of the policies taken by the customers to increase
customer satisfaction. However, these policies frequently result
in lower profits and hinder the purpose of others especially the
associates, dealers, suppliers, and stock holders. The main
objective of an organization is to provide the maximum level of
satisfaction to the customers as well as the associates, dealers,
suppliers, and stock holders by using its total resources.