What some companies do in order to attract the consumer's loyalty is to attach a customer satisfaction guarantee behind any product they sell. What attracts consumers to these customer satisfaction guarantee offers is that they are straightforward, easy to understand and you know it to be true.
However ? sometimes the more often a company advertises the customer satisfaction guarantee, the more often consumers are turned off by the company. Another important thing that companies have to take into consideration before presenting any guarantees in relation to their products or services is that they should have their attorneys review the guarantee because it might have legal repercussions.
Here are three examples of companies using customer satisfaction guarantees on their products:
1) L.L. Bean trademarked its ?Guaranteed, You Have Our Word? motto and beneath it written in smaller lines read that their products guarantee their consumers 100% satisfaction. If, for whatever reason, the consumer did not find it to his satisfaction, he can return the product at anytime as they do not want their consumers to have anything from them that is not at par to their satisfaction. Consumers seem to like this motto a lot as it is straightforward, direct and easy to understand.
2) Lands? End uses ?Guaranteed. Period.? as its motto, and they also went so far as having the motto trademarked. Like L.L. Bean's, it is also direct and straight to the point. They also that if the consumers do not find the product to their satisfaction, they can also have the item returned at any time so that they can have their money back. This also assures the consumers of money back if they are not fully satisfied. But they also added more text underneath ? too much information ? thus, confusing the consumers. Unlike the first motto, this company added confusion to an otherwise easy-to-understand motto.
3) Thirdly, Sears created their own motto of ?Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back.? Okay, it sounds very interesting. It simplifies what the other two companies have said and seems to be much more direct. If you are not satisfied with an item, you can have your money back. But written below are more jumbled words that confuse the consumers more! They are asking for the original packaging, original packing slip and order confirmation email receipt before a refund or an exchange of the item. Then more and more words that I, as a consumer myself, think of as being a big mouthful, all lawyerly and all businesslike. Their lawyers and accountants might find these useful, but not your average consumer. What this shows to the consumers is that if a product is not to the satisfaction of the consumer, he is definitely going to have a hard time getting his money back or returning the item for an exchange! Now tell me if this can build loyalty with the consumers? It doesn't, does it!?
Your average customer will always go for a direct and easy to understand customer satisfaction guarantee. The more words a company places below their guarantee, the more confused a consumer gets. Like any other products, you have to fit your guarantee to the product that you're selling, but it doesn't mean that you have to confuse your consumers with how they can get their money back or how they exchange the item if what they purchased wasn't to their satisfaction. Keep it simple, guys - direct and uncomplicated please!
What Is Customer Satisfaction
I'd like you to put yourself in the shoes of a customer. It shouldn't be too difficult as we are all customers every day of our life. Let's imagine you go out for dinner with a loved one or friends. As the night progresses, it becomes clear that the service at the restaurant is not as slick as you would have liked, and the food is ok but nothing out of this world. Despite the restaurant's shortcomings, when the waitress comes over at the end of your meal and asks, ‘Did you enjoy your meal?' what do you say? I'm not a betting woman, but my money would be on you responding with something along the lines of ‘It was lovely, thank you.' Why? Because: most people feel they will ruin a lovely evening by complaining; its generally too late to do anything about it anyway, so what's the point; and most people don't like to complain face to face because it feels confrontational. However, when our friends and family suggest going to the same restaurant for dinner, what do we do? We tell them that they shouldn't bother and list off all the reasons why they should go elsewhere. Sound familiar? So why would your customers be any different?
Recognising this phenomenon, BA decided to conduct its own research to see what happened with its complaints procedure. Remarkably, they discovered that only 8% of customer complaints were ever registered with a customer services representative – in other words, just the tip of the iceberg. Instead, 23% talked to the nearest employee, and a further 69% suffered in silence and did not tell anyone at BA. Had BA been basing its customer satisfaction on the number of complaints received they would have only been looking at a tiny part of the total picture.
“Very few dissatisfied customers complain, making this a meaningless measure of customer satisfaction.”
Very few customers will complain directly to you, but that does not mean that they won't complain to other people. In fact in reality it's quite the opposite! Let's think back to the restaurant example I gave at the beginning of this article. Be honest, if a restaurant was offering bad food and service, how many people would you tell?
A research study conducted back in 1999 discovered that on average an unhappy customer will tell 10 people about their experience. In turn, these 10 people will each tell a further 5 people, meaning that a total of 50 people will have heard about their bad experience. A sobering thought, wouldn't you say? What's even more frightening, however, is that if we work on the basis that only one out of every ten of your dissatisfied customers registers a complaint with you, then in total, for every formal complaint you receive, 500 people will have heard about your customers' problems!
“Customers very rarely complain to the service/ product provider. The reality is, they are far more likely to let their friends know, who will in turn tell their friends, creating a pyramid of dissatisfaction.”
The good news is that this is not a problem without a solution. Equally, the solution is something that can be achieved by resorts large and small. In straightforward terms, all you need to do is to ask your customers what their opinion of you is! Now don't get me wrong, it takes a brave organisation to ask their customers to give their honest opinions, and you have to be prepared to take the rough with the smooth. However, it is only those organisations that understand what makes their customers unhappy that are able to put improvements in place for the future.
Ultimately, if you conduct a customer satisfaction survey it will not only give you a benchmark of where you are today, but if you ask the right questions in the first place, it will also enable you to highlight your priorities for improvement so that you know you are putting your energies into those areas that are of the highest importance to your customers. As the old adage goes, you can't manage what you don't measure.
“The key to the success of your business is held by your customers. Only by understanding them better will you be able to unlock your business's future potential.”
Measuring customer satisfaction is only the first step of course. It's what you do with the findings that will make the real difference. By turning the insight into action, in other words, by making the necessary changes that will improve the satisfaction of your customers your business could benefit from: • Improved customer retention • Increased sales as satisfied customers tend to buy more often and a wider range • Increased control over your customers because you understand your customers better • More referrals generated from your current customers
How much incremental revenue would even a small increase in each of these areas give to your business? As I said, I'm not a betting woman, but I'd take a gamble that it would be far less than the investment required to conduct a customer satisfaction survey.
Both Steven Taylor & Juliet Mumford are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Steven Taylor has sinced written about articles on various topics from How to Sell on Ebay, Customer Service and Difficult people. Steven Taylor is a Marketing Consultant to http://www.Retronix.com - one of the most innovative and effective suppliers to the electronics & semiconductor industries. Servic. Steven Taylor's top article generates over 5400 views. Bookmark Steven Taylor to your Favourites.
Juliet Mumford has sinced written about articles on various topics from Ideas for Scrapbooking, Customer Service. If you would like to know more about how Intelligent Insight can work with you to measure and improve the satisfaction fo your customers, please send an email to info@intelligentinsight.co.uk or visit our website;. Juliet Mumford's top article generates over 2400 views. Bookmark Juliet Mumford to your Favourites.
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