Comments on: Is ” Customer satisfaction ” an approach from the past ?

By: Edison Reis

Edison Reis — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 08:05:36 +0000

Hi Patricia,

I agree 101% with your comments !

We have been working to achive customer loyalty and perhaps the most successful examples are in clients where we have a partnership and not a client - supplier relationship. Whenever we create truly a win - win situation is when closer we get to loyalty (from both sides)

Cheers

Edison Reis
http://www.QualityAssuranceManagement.com

By: Leopoldo Araujo

Leopoldo Araujo — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:07:46 +0000

Turning around the idea of fulfilling expectations, delighters, and loyalty is nice but I see it falls short when we want clients coming back.

You will keep the loyalty of your clients as long as they see in you an offer to their concerns, not their expectations -being their expectations the first interpretation of their needs to solve their concerns.

This is the equivalent of going after the root cause in a process. In this case you look after the observer and his/her distinctions to build your offer.

The hard part in this approach is working with the soft side of the process and, there, people with the competencies and the methodological structure that is required is scarce.

Leopoldo Araujo

By: Patricia Trudeau

Patricia Trudeau — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:16:52 +0000

I agree that customer loyalty is paramount in this economy. Years ago, quality management was all about not only satisfying the customer, but delighting the customer. Well, where does that delight stop? Once you delight the customer, it becomes an expectation. Just miss that delight one time, and your customer becomes disappointed.

Loyalty is more important, because this means you have a customer that will work with you through good times and bad and knows that you have their best interests in mind when doing business with them.

Patricia Trudeau

By: Rahul Kalia

Rahul Kalia — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 17:15:10 +0000

-Meeting and exceeding customer expectations will result in loyalty
-Customer might test waters with a different vendor but if your delivery has been strong and you never had the customer complaining, he is bound to come back and then would never leave unless one stops delivering in the manner which bought your customer back.
-Loyalty would be a stage where a customer feels that the vendor is no longer a vendor and takes active interest in understanding, creating and customising the customers need, thats where the relationship builds.
-Let the customer use the word loyalty, we must continue to deliver. Loyalty can sometimes lead to a very casual mode of delivering, which can be dangerous (getting over confident)
-Also while meeting/exceeding customer expectation one must keep the cost factor involved (to some extent atleast), we would not want to keep exceeding and delivering if we arent making the kind of money. Customer loyal or not, he needs to be profitable in the end of the day.

Cheers

Rahul Kalia

By: Rob John

Rob John — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 21:47:47 +0000

I am talking purely from my experience in a high volume manufacturing environment but the point is a relevant one. I have seen satisfied customers leave and place their business with our competitors and dissatisfied customers remain forever loyal. I believe the reason for this is that it is determined by the strength and depth of the relationship.

To quantify this:
I have seen satisfied ‘key’ accounts lost because the Salesman / Account Manager wanted to be the single point of contact with the customer for one reason or another. The problem here is that the relationship between the two organisations is channelled and totally reliant upon that of just two people, invariably our Account Manager and the customers Buyer. If this sours for any reason or the Buyer feels particularly pressed to meet cost targets or one party moves on, loyalty very quickly disappears.

Even when the Account Manager seeks to broaden his/her interface, their priority is to sell and find new customers so they dont have the time and do not posess the skills or the affinity to operate or communicate effectively with staff from elsewhere within the customers organisation. Good ‘Hunters’ are not always going to make good ‘Farmers’!!

In my experience, loyalty exists where the supplier has recognised the value of ‘farming’ an account and actively encourages more points of contact with the customer. By having other functional staff interfacing with like-minded, opposite numbers, e.g. production managers from both organisations, there is potential for a series of bonds to form, some of which will become very strong. Facing similar challenges in their everyday lives, they will empathise with each other, help and advise each other and do ‘favours’ for one another. Eventually loyalty exists at multiple levels, inducing many internal blockers for the customer to overcome if they are considering an alternative supplier.

Rob John