In the previous articles, we have seen the benefit of the satisfied customer to the company and what factors affect their expectation on the service/products and when they are satisfied with the product/service. Therefore, the author will continue the article with how to find out what the customer want and value most in your products/service.
The front line people/ and salespeople must listen to what the customer say about the product/service and welcome any comments or complaints from the customers and report it to the top management or production department. If managed properly, the company can know how the customers are really perceiving the company performance.
But it is said that only about 1 out of 5 dis-satisfied customers make complaints. The rest 4 just walk away or defect to the competitors. It shows that complaint making level is even more that tolerable level. Therefore, relying on the complaint/comments alone is not enough for a company to gauge the customer perception. Therefore, there is a call for research though expensive.
When a proper research is conducted, the company will know what the customers want and what the company is providing in reality. The most effective research on service quality and customer satisfaction are like (I-P Grid, Importance versus performance, compare what the customers think this is important with their perceived performance), (SERVQUAL, Expectation versus perception, compare what the customers expect with what they actually perceive), and (SERVPER, Service Performance, see the performance rating).
Here is the sample calculation for the above mentioned techniques.
I-P Grid (I=Importance Versus P=Performance) - For example: There are five ratings for the importance of friendliness of the staff at a hotel from the point of customer.
Importance of Friendliness: 5=very important, 4= important, 3=neutral, 2=not important, 1=not important at all.
Actual performance of friendliness: 5=Very good, 4=Good, 3=neutral, 2=bad, 1=very bad. Lets give these two questions to a customer, and see how they perceive.
From this table, we can conclude that the company is not providing what the customer perceive is good. The first customer regard importance, and perceived it too very good. So he will be satisfied.
But for 2, 3, 4, they regarded it not important but they perceive the performance is more than necessary.
For this case, the company should reduce resource on this friendliness dimension and use it elsewhere important to customers.
The same calculation is used for SERVQUAL=Service quality on Expectation Versus Performance.
For the SERVPERF=Service Performance, only the perceived performance is analyzed. But the rating is always the same number, the number of ratings should always be odd numbers so that the neutral is on the middle.
By conducting this research, the company will be able to distinguish the “IS” and “SHOULD”. Everywhere and every time, the company is producing or providing what they think is the best or at least useful for the customer, but it is often discovered that what the company is giving priority is not the optimal value for the customers.
Upon finding out which aspect is more important over another to customers, the company will be able to manage necessary training, integrate internal marketing concepts and allocate the resources where it is most value added.
I hope you will get some tips from this article. Source: Philip Kotler, marketing management, Ian Chaston, Customer-focused marketing,(1993) and Zeithamal, Delivering quality service (1990).
The front line people/ and salespeople must listen to what the customer say about the product/service and welcome any comments or complaints from the customers and report it to the top management or production department. If managed properly, the company can know how the customers are really perceiving the company performance.
But it is said that only about 1 out of 5 dis-satisfied customers make complaints. The rest 4 just walk away or defect to the competitors. It shows that complaint making level is even more that tolerable level. Therefore, relying on the complaint/comments alone is not enough for a company to gauge the customer perception. Therefore, there is a call for research though expensive.
When a proper research is conducted, the company will know what the customers want and what the company is providing in reality. The most effective research on service quality and customer satisfaction are like (I-P Grid, Importance versus performance, compare what the customers think this is important with their perceived performance), (SERVQUAL, Expectation versus perception, compare what the customers expect with what they actually perceive), and (SERVPER, Service Performance, see the performance rating).
Here is the sample calculation for the above mentioned techniques.
I-P Grid (I=Importance Versus P=Performance) - For example: There are five ratings for the importance of friendliness of the staff at a hotel from the point of customer.
Importance of Friendliness: 5=very important, 4= important, 3=neutral, 2=not important, 1=not important at all.
Actual performance of friendliness: 5=Very good, 4=Good, 3=neutral, 2=bad, 1=very bad. Lets give these two questions to a customer, and see how they perceive.
From this table, we can conclude that the company is not providing what the customer perceive is good. The first customer regard importance, and perceived it too very good. So he will be satisfied.
But for 2, 3, 4, they regarded it not important but they perceive the performance is more than necessary.
For this case, the company should reduce resource on this friendliness dimension and use it elsewhere important to customers.
The same calculation is used for SERVQUAL=Service quality on Expectation Versus Performance.
For the SERVPERF=Service Performance, only the perceived performance is analyzed. But the rating is always the same number, the number of ratings should always be odd numbers so that the neutral is on the middle.
By conducting this research, the company will be able to distinguish the “IS” and “SHOULD”. Everywhere and every time, the company is producing or providing what they think is the best or at least useful for the customer, but it is often discovered that what the company is giving priority is not the optimal value for the customers.
Upon finding out which aspect is more important over another to customers, the company will be able to manage necessary training, integrate internal marketing concepts and allocate the resources where it is most value added.
I hope you will get some tips from this article. Source: Philip Kotler, marketing management, Ian Chaston, Customer-focused marketing,(1993) and Zeithamal, Delivering quality service (1990).
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