When you provide the right service, at the right price, at the right time, and to the agreed-upon specifications, the customer is satisfied.
This is the mission of most organizations because they are of the belief that if they just satisfy their customers, the customers will be loyal. But studies conducted on the relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty show that this belief is flawed.
For several years in the past, Xerox had polled 480,000 customers per year regarding product and service satisfaction using a five-point scale from 1 (low) to 5 (high).
Their goal had always been to achieve 100% 4s (satisfied) and 5s (very satisfied).
But one year, they did an analysis of customers who rated them 4s and those who rated them 5s and found that their actual loyalty differed greatly. Customers giving Xerox 5s were six times more likely to repurchase Xerox equipment than those giving 4s.
This has profound implications: Making customers satisfied does not make them loyal. Making customers very satisfied is what makes them loyal.
Customers are reasonable, but if they are just satisfied and have a choice, they can be lured away easily. That’s why in today’s competitive and rapidly changing marketplace, making customers satisfied is just not good enough.
So, if your organization still aims at just satisfying customers, there is need to extend your objective and start aspiring to make them very satisfied. And making customers very satisfied is not complicated. What is required is to always provide the unexpected or the extra service – the few add-ons that in most cases cost so little.
For example, consider the experience of Ken who usually services his car at a particular auto workshop called Auto Center A. Ken’s basic goal is to have his car serviced properly. When the car goes in for servicing, everything on the checklist is usually carried out absolutely correctly with car ready on time and the bill also totally correct. So Ken is satisfied with the services of this auto workshop and has become their regular customer.
One day, after his car became due for servicing, he was going to that workshop (Auto Center A) for servicing and saw another workshop called Auto Center B that newly opened in the same vicinity. And their service charge is the same as that of Auto Center A. Ken decided to try the new workshop. So he dropped his car for servicing at the workshop (Auto Center B) and went to a nearby market for shopping.
When he returned to collect his car, he found not only that the service has been done properly, the bill correct and the car ready, but that it has also been washed, the interior has been vacuumed with a clean white sheet of paper placed in the footwell. And there is a band of paper around the steering wheel that says, “This car has been serviced by Osaze Oviawe. If you have any worries, please ask to speak to him.” Ken was very satisfied.
In Auto Center A, the services Ken was being offered were what he paid for and expected. That is, the auto workshop was doing what they were supposed to do. And that made Ken satisfied. This sort of service that makes customers just satisfied is outdated.
In Auto Center B, the service rendered was what Ken paid for and expected; plus the extras, the unexpected. And Ken was very satisfied. This is the contemporary customer service model.
The organization that will survive and flourish over the long term is the one that adopts this contemporary model as their service culture; the one that understands how important the level of customer satisfaction is and continually works to do for their customers everything they can do after they have done what they are supposed to do.
So, here is an important question to ponder: What are those extra things you can do to give your customer a better experience that will make them very satisfied?
If you do not find the answers and take action, your competitors will. And when they do, your customers who are just satisfied will be lured away.
Remember, Ken was satisfied with the services of Auto Center A. But will he return there as a regular customer after his experience at Auto Center B?