Tweet

The Importance of Customer Satisfaction

Written by: Nancy Arter

Article Overview: This article discusses the importance of creating excellent customer satisfaction so that your customers spend more of their dollars with your company. It also give some ideas that you can implement immediately in your business to accomplish this.

The Importance of Customer Satisfaction

From today's "DM News": Customer Satisfaction Down Again! Here's a direct quote from the article:

"Overall customer satisfaction declined in the fourth quarter of 2007, marking two subsequent quarters in which a decline was posted, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index, released today by the University of Michigan.

In the fourth quarter, the index fell to 74.9 on the ACSI's 100-point scale, down 0.4% from the previous quarter. This news, combined with increasing unemployment, declining house prices, tighter credit, high levels of household debt and rising fuel and food prices is likely to pose challenges this quarter for consumer spending growth, according to the ACSI."

Here's the question that we pose today: Is customer service related to the economy? Will, as the article contends, low customer satisfaction equate to less consumer spending?

If so, then it's critical that companies get focused on their customer. Today--not tomorrow.

I'm a firm believer that we can do lots to improve the customer experience, even without spending an enormous amount of money. A couple of no/low cost ideas come to mind:

1. Empower your front-line employees to solve problems. Let cashiers, for example, extend a small discount if a customer wants to buy slightly damaged merchandise. Let the customer service rep extend the web discount, even if the prospective customer called in for service. By empowering the people who talk to your customers, you're solving a problem quickly, making your customer and your employee feel more valued--and those are always keys to satisfaction.
2. Mine your customer database to understand exactly who ARE your most valuable customers. Whether it's in terms of longevity (how long they've been with you) or how much they've spent or how often they buy, make sure you have a handle on just who are your best customers. Then, when you have a handle on this metric, make sure you treat these folks with extra special service. These are the people you definitely don't want to defect to your competitor. So, implement programs designed to show these high-value customers that you care.


We believe that it's always important to keep customers happy. In these crazy economic times, it's crucial.

Related Articles
  The Secrets to Creating Customer Satisfaction
  Loyal Customers Build Sales
  Acquiring The Practice Of Outstanding Customer Satisfaction
  The Customer Service Satisfaction
  The Customer Satisfaction Trap

Article Tags: acsi, american customer satisfaction index, amount of money, consumer spending, customer database, customer experience, customer satisfaction index, customer service rep, dm news, firm believer, food prices, fourth quarter, house prices, household debt, longevity, peop, prospective customer, quarters, university of michigan, web discount
Referred by: http://www.internet-search-marketing.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Two Useful Books To Help You Focus On The CLIENT - Hi David, To add to your thread, I'd like to recommend Jonathan Tisch's "Chocolates On The Pillow Aren't Enough: Reinventing The Customer Experience". Tisch's book includes content on "Welcoming Customers", "The New Art of Customization", "The Challenges of Customer Diversity" and "Offering Something Extra to Your Customers" to name a few.
Re: Some attractive terms in advertisement - [quote="lane_hug":sqdmyojl]Some terms can make the advertisement look more attractive, like unlimited, free, life time guarantee, and more. These should be definitely incorporated to ensure fast sales.[/quote:sqdmyojl] You've got to be careful with such terms, though. Take as an example the poor Korean dry cleaners who had the words "Satisfaction guaranteed" on their storefront window. They lost (supposedly) a pair of slacks from some loony judge, who proceeded to sue them for MILLIONS of dollars (over a $100 pair of slacks) because they did not provide him with satisfaction. [If the sign had said "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back" perhaps none of it would have happened...] These days more and more people are apt to sue at the drop of a hat, and if you promise them something even though common sense says you wouldn't have meant what you said (for example Pepsi got in trouble because their commercial for Pepsi points, at the time the movie True Lies came out, featured a Harrier jet as in the movie. A few looney businessmen bought up all the points the could to get that jet, although they were told it had just been dramatic license, and ended up suing Pepsi for misleading advertising. The suit was dismissed, but the fact that the guy was able to find lawyers who'd even take the case on is scary. To cut a long story short, be careful what terms you use, and think to yourself what you'd have to do if people took them literally.
Re: Paypal process $315 million in payments per day. - I agree with you David, their Customer relations suck. This mean other payment systems like 2CO and WORLDPAY should work on their customers relations to take more slice of the market.
Re: Welcome to Entrepreneur University! - Hi Evan and GT, Can you clarify? If you join the "Preferred Customer" you are not entitled to commission? Why? This is the the $79.95/month account, I don't understand why you are not getting commission from it?
Re: Email Marketing Benefits - Robert, Many lists consist of more prospects than customers. Customer lists are the best, but they are created because prospects successfully transform into customers.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What Makes an Extraordinary Business Consultant?

Getting The Media Attention You Deserve

Coaching - An Effective Tool for Managers

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.