In the past, companies and organizations have focused on one thing and one thing only: Profit. The way in which companies analyzed their profits was based on the percentage of the work force costs and overhead as a percentage of the company’s entire revenue – the manufacturing mentality. Profit was good. Profit equated to Customer Satisfaction in the eyes of financial bean counters. Maybe this was not the way the customer evaluated his customer experience but it was the way in which the company measured it. This business model has become obsolete, primarily because of social as well as business changes which have occurred in the last decade. Customers are now looking for a positive experience as part of their interchange in any business enterprise.
Today, markets are focused on creating an exceptional Customer Experience. By creating an exceptional Customer Experience your consumer will become your advocate, actively promoting your product or service and recommending it freely to his/her friends, family and wider circle. A business may (and should) add marketing and advertising, but its growth and profit are created and maintained by having a majority of satisfied, frequent user, promoter customers. The premise of creating satisfied customers who become your advocates has been tested and proved repeatedly. It was first articulated by Professor Fred Reichheld of Harvard University and is now widely adopted by all the Fortune 500 and Fortune 1000 companies. The expectation of an exceptional customer experience is not related to consumer income, nor to the cost of the product or service offered (price is a factor of course, but not the deciding one.) Demographics and income do not impact consumers’ desire for an exceptional Customer Experience. It is now part of our culture.
As you are starting or reviewing your current business, what do you see?
Do you focus your business efforts on things associated with a manufacturing mentality (labor cost, overhead, etc.)?
Do you ensure that each and every contact made by your brand with each and every customer is an exceptional experience?
The focus of all businesses in the past was a “manufacturing mentality”. This had been the way all businesses evaluated themselves in the last century. Customer satisfaction was not a factor that was considered. Today is very different. To be successful today, we must move from old thinking to new ideas.
We can assume that you have had at least one dissatisfied customer. The main question today is how did you handle it?
- Did you tell the customer they were wrong and leave it at that?
- Did you do whatever possible to correct the problem to create an extremely satisfied customer?
To turn the customer experience from that of an unhappy customer into an extremely satisfied, promoter customer is not only doing the best possible thing for your customer, but also your company and your employee. Management 2000 believes that in order to create an exceptional customer experience you must create that same exceptional experience for your employees. Creating a great work experience is an essential part of the exceptional customer experience. Come back next week to read our blog on how employee satisfaction drives exceptional service for the consumer.
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