It’s
not the quality of service that you give but the quality of service that the customer
perceives that causes him to buy and come back. Now for the big question: What
causes customers to perceive service as good or bad? Here’s a very important
concept to remember:
Perceived service quality is the difference between what they
get and what they expect.
Every
customer comes with certain expectations about the quality of the goods, the
services, and the total experience of dealing with your business. When you exceed
his expectations he perceives the quality as relatively high. When you fail to
meet his expectations he perceives the quality as relatively low.
This is important because relative
perceived quality is the single most important factor in determining long-term
profitability.
Key To Shaping Customer Perception
It’s
not enough to reward your customers with good service. You have to make them
aware of the good deal they’re getting for doing business with you and keep reminding
them in many subtle, different ways. In reality there’s no such thing as a good
deal or a bad deal. Only the customer’s thinking makes it so.
Here
are some essentials to shaping a high-quality service image in the customer’s eyes:
1.
Develop a customer profile.
2.
Look at your business through your customer’s eyes.
3.
Beware of over-promising and building unrealistic expectations.
4.
Use problems as opportunities to demonstrate just what great service your
company gives. (Customers judge the quality of service in two basic ways: 1)
how well you deliver what you promise and 2) how you handle exceptions and
problems.)
5.
Develop a unique relationship with your customers and treat each one as someone
special.
6.
Keep in touch and keep them informed.
7.
Remember that a large part of good service is showbiz.
In
summary, the acid test for the success of any business is the perceived overall
value that customers think they are getting. The companies that offer value consistently
to their customers are the ones that win and keep them. But when perceived
value disappears, so do the customers. When it comes to customers, what matters
most isn’t what you know or whom you know, but how you are known to them.
To Win New Customers, Ask the Golden Question
Virtually
every successful businessperson you ask will tell you that finding and meeting
unmet wants is the name of the game when it comes to winning customers. The
better you do this, the more customers you’ll win. You don’t have to be a
genius to create customers. But you do have to find practical, workable answers
to what I call the golden question:
What’s the unmet want?
The
art of finding and meeting the unmet want is the high road to winning
customers.
Putting the Golden Question to Work
To
be sure, finding workable, profitable answers to the golden question is more an
art than a science, and one that often involves a large amount of risk. There
are some things that you can do to stack the odds more in your favor. The
following ideas will help you toward that end:
1.
Always start by defining markets instead of your company’s talents and
strengths.
2.
Ask your customers and potential customers the golden question.
3.
Create new products and services by giving the familiar a new twist.
4.
Brainstorm ideas for creating new customers.
5.
Be a trend-spotter.
6.
Look before you leap.
7.
Once you decide to go ahead, move quickly.
8.
Be prepared for a large number of ideas that don’t work out.
What you need to know
Without
customers you have no business. You will need to put as much effort into
winning and keeping your customers as you do in providing products or services.
Working closely with your customers, understanding their motivations and why
they chose your business will help you to keep their custom and innovate to
attract new customers. Some estimate that it costs ten times as much to attract
a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. Setting your business up
with your customers at its heart will help to keep you ahead of competitors and
earn you invaluable customer loyalty.
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