The Sunday Mail
“It is not about having the right opportunities. Its about handling the opportunities right” – Mark Hunter
Now that Black Friday is done and dusted and November Sales have dried up, organisations are now charging their true prices. However, customers will not mind spending an extra dollar on a product or service that gives them satisfaction.
What is customer satisfaction? Customer satisfaction is the ability of an organisation to deliver products or services in a way that meets and exceeds customer expectations. When customers patronise a company they have certain expectations in terms of service delivery and when it manages to deliver beyond the expected, the customers become excited and are likely to come for repeat business. This will result in them becoming loyal and referring others in need of the same products or services.
I remember there was a time when GMO chickens flooded our local market. They tasted awful but were priced favourably. Most local customers were dissatisfied and ended up going for the locally produced chickens which were priced higher but meeting their expectations. They derived satisfaction from the local produce and spending more did not matter but it was the value that they were getting from these chickens.
If organisations are to survive in the business world they must have tactics that they must use in order to achieve better customer satisfaction such as:
- Customer needs are important
Customer satisfaction does not start when the person is about to purchase but begins well before the actual purchase of the product or service. When a customer initiates an interaction with an organisation through the phone or when they visit to gather certain information or just making general enquiries, the response that they will receive may satisfy the customer such that they may feel invited to do business with that organisation or, adversely, it might push them to the organisation’s competitors. The content on the organisation’s website or social media pages must be able to meet the customer needs such that when customers navigate the sites, they are impressed with what they will be seeing and reading.
It is important for an organisation’s team that interact directly with customers to be very good listeners. When customers are communicating their needs to the company representatives, they expect them to be attentive so that they are able to pick exactly their wants without having to miss some important aspects of the needs.
After purchasing a product or service, customers prefer to feel like the decision to do the purchase was theirs and not a coercion from some persistent sales person. Thus, sales persons should not use undue influence or duress when selling their sales story; rather they should let the customer make the independent final decision whether to buy or not to buy.
- Ethical Standards are a necessity
Have you ever bought something but soon after the purchase when doing post-purchase evaluation, you feel like the product was not worth the amount you paid for it? It happens to a lot of people and usually it is caused by sales people that provide limited information and may not be very truthful about certain aspects of the product or service. In most cases, customer service representatives or sales people are not very honest when it is about the pricing, benefits, warranties, return policies and side effects. When these are not mentioned and the customer somehow get the correct information from other informal sources it will definitely dent or end their relationship with the organisation.
Company representatives must strive to be ethical all the times and once that is done it creates confidence and satisfaction. They must never be economical with the truth regarding what the organisation is offering and where there is need to improve, that must be done.
- Product Knowledge
Sales people who have great knowledge about the product and services that they are selling can easily win the hearts of their customers. What customers are looking for is not just a low-priced product but complete and reliable information about what they are contemplating to buy. It is the duty of the organisation’s representative to have in-depth knowledge about the product itself, its uses, the benefits it possesses and the value they will derive from that purchase. Such exhibition of knowledge reflects on the organisation’s desire to serve on its customer needs and shows that the organisation cares for its customers. When an organisation has trained personnel, their initial interactions with the customers will make customers feel welcome to do business even before they visit the organisation premises or showroom.
- After-sales relationship
It is difficult to satisfy every customer but organisations must know that when a customer is not happy with their service and they register a complaint, they must be able to address the problem professionally. An aggrieved customer who notify the organisation about a bad customer experience gives the organisation an opportunity to improve on its service delivery. It is up to the organisation to address the situation and make right with the customer or risk losing him. Remember a service mishap does not mean you have lost a customer, it only requires a spontaneous rectification that is amicable to both parties.
An organisation must be able to cement its business relationship with its customers through regular updates on its activities such as new products or services on offer. A simple thank you message send to a customer after a purchase makes customers feel valued.
It is a primary objective for organisations to always work on improving their customer satisfaction and this can only be done if they have a better understanding of their customers’ needs.
Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba is a marketing enthusiast with a strong passion for customer service. For comments and suggestions, she can be reached on [email protected] or on 0712 979 461.
