The Sunday Mail
Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba
“The key is when a customer walks away, thinking, Wow, I love doing business with them, and I want to tell others about the experience” – Shep Hyken
Imagine you own a business and one day you walk into your offices expecting business as usual, but, alas, most of your customers have switched to your competition.
It will probably feel like a dagger in your back.
No business in the world can survive without customers; customers are the lifeblood.
When there is a short supply of customers, revenues will drop while the cost to replace lost customers will increase.
It is difficult to make financial plans when you are not sure where the next dollar will come from; thus, the business will suffer from uncertainty.
However, there is only one way to avoid such a corporate tragedy – atisfying the hand that feeds you.
Although marketers today are talking about customer delight, the first stage is to satisfy their basic needs before migrating to delight.
If you are into business and want to have a good night’s sleep, never ignore customer satisfaction.
According to research by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), 59 percent of customers leave a company after several bad experiences, while 17 percent just need one bad customer experience to say goodbye forever.
Customer satisfaction is when a company’s products and services are able to meet the customer’s expectation.
So, when customers patronise your business, they have certain expectations, which will either be met, exceeded or not met at all, when they experience your products or services.
Thus, an expectation of an experience will determine customer satisfaction or customer dissatisfaction.
Having repeat customers is not a sign that you are doing well, because often times some customers may be forgetting to cancel their contract with you, or they do not know the steps to follow when they want to break free from you.
That reminds me of my dad. He had some health update applications that he had subscribed up for from his mobile network provider, and every time he got an update money would be deducted from his airtime.
He then realised that he was not getting value and wanted to opt out, but was not sure how to deregister it.
It kept on going on for a while, until when he decided to seek advice from family on how to opt out, and we helped him save his airtime for things that provided value to him.
There are a lot of customers like him who do not know how to unsubscribe, procrastinate to move to competition or lack the courage to complain about dissatisfaction or their desire for a refund.
Customers with all these issues may still be giving you business, but the truth of the matter is they are not satisfied customers!
Organisations who are willing to progress not only continue to do business as usual, but will seek to undergo a customer satisfaction audit that is meant to unearth the exact influences of customer satisfaction among your customers or lack of it.
Moreover, customer satisfaction is one-way businesses can measure the pulse of the business.
It is no secret that companies that are able to give happiness to their customers will capture them for the long run.
I have always been a Portuguese restaurants fan, because I like the way they prepare their dishes, especially their garlic and lemon-flavoured chicken, so during the weekend I had an opportunity to visit the Dam View in Chitungwiza for the first time.
Ironically, I sat at an unbranded spot for a meal, and one of the guys operating at that place, Felix, came up to me and introduced himself and marketed his T-bone steak and pork chop, and dared me to try it.
I was a bit skeptical, but he had to further convince me that theirs was the same as that served at The Pointe Restaurant in Harare.
I have tasted food from The Pointe in Harare, and being a Portuguese dishes addict, I was eager to give my taste buds a time of their life.
Wow, without thinking I quickly ordered the T-Bone, which was served with soft, but hot white sadza.
Surely, they did not disappoint and I did not regret placing an order with them, because by the time I left that place I was one happy customer.
I got satisfied and just could not stop sharing…the power of customer satisfaction will take your brand far and wide.
*Cresencia Marjorie Chiremba is a marketing enthusiast with a strong passion for customer service. For comments, suggestions and training, she can be reached on [email protected] or on 0712 979 461, 0719 978 335
