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| The worldwide business community became increasingly concerned during the 1970's and 80's as Japanese companies began to dominate several industries, including electronics and automobiles. This prompted a serious rethinking of the way business was conducted something that compelled organizations across industries to focus on creating distinctive position in the minds of consumers. |
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| The conclusion |
| Satisfying customers is the primary purpose of every business. This conclusion recognizes the power of reciprocity - satisfy customers' needs and customers reward you with continuing business. This leads to profits and increased shareholder value. |
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| Once the leadership has been oriented towards envisioning and cascading the line of sight to the consumer, the culture of the organization is made conducive for customer centricity to be a pervasive value how do we then ensure that this value is driven through the chain to the customer himself? |
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| We all know service is one of the biggest market differentiators The Taj's and Oberoi's work for us because of their exceptionally on-brand and impeccable customer service. McDonald's appeals to all classes because of its precise service that makes you want to go back again and again. |
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| A critical moment of truth for any customer in his or her interaction with the company occurs in the event of dissatisfaction. Mouthshut.com, and other retail blogging websites have become powerful means by which customers ensure that they remain the king. Consumer courts have further supported this by airing widespread public interest advertisements on consumer rights. Add to this, the current market scenario what was exceeding the expectations last year, is not enough this year. That's why we have to be sharper than the competition, and listen to our customer. |
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There are two ways of knowing what the customer wants proactively, whereby companies employ expensive qualitative questionnaires, feedback post delivery, market research, etc to get customer feedback.
However, it is the inexpensive and valuable information that is received as a reaction to a product or service that can serve as a critical market information tool in the form of complaints. Welcoming the voice of the customer and allowing it to resonate across levels within the organization enables a feeling of unison with the customer and helps in building a loyal customer base.
It is imperative to remember that if customers are complaining, they are still engaged. It is when they don't complain that there is a problem.
In keeping with the endeavor to help organizations enable customer responsive cultures, InspireOne| TMI conducts an International Complaints Culture Survey every year that allows organizations to internationally benchmark themselves against companies on their service recovery ability.
Our survey revealed that for most organizations, only 5 out of 10 unhappy customers complained. Why is that?
One of the major reasons is that the process of complaints is too complicated. At the same time people feel that even though they complain, the situation will not change. People do not know who to complain to, or what procedure to follow.
And in the process, that customer becomes a lost customer a lost opportunity for service recovery and customer loyalty. The truth is that companies should not fear complaints. And they wouldn't if they knew how to handle them. Some tips to keep in mind while improvising on this our research revealed:
- 82% of the people that place a complaint want to know if the issue has been taken care of. So take the time to answer by mail or by phone to the customer, and not only he'll feel satisfied, but also he will go back the company, trusting one more time.
- 40% of customers believe most complaints should be resolved within the same day or within 2-3 days. So if you are taking longer than that, make sure all your employees, internal and external, are focused on the customer.
- What frustrates customers the most when they have invested the time to complain is lack of ownership on part of the company. Remember, the customer doesn't care whose fault it is, he/she simply wants the problem solved as soon as possible, with the expected apologies, of course.
Something to leave you behind with, research has proved that customer retention is key to profitability and consistent growth - it costs five times more to get a new customer vis-a-vis retaining existing customers; existing customers spend 33% more than new customers and also help to get in new customers through word of mouth!
This is validated by the fact that our survey found that when partnering with a company, 37 % of the customers looked at past experiences as the critical factor, 50% give importance to brand and 45% rate customer service levels.
In a nutshell, when the customer speaks listening is paramount. What he will experience during your moment of truth cycle, he will discuss, transmit and certainly remember. |
| Permission is required to reproduce these articles. Please contact our media representative, Anshil Nigam for further information |
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