A recent study in Holland revealed that half of so called 'faulty' new electronic products that were returned to retailers actually worked perfectly well. The consumer of the product just simply could not figure out how to operate their new electronic device and assumed it was broken.
Worse still, an American research suggests that around 10% of consumers damage or even destroy their high tech gadgets out of frustration. In one case, it was discovered that a restaurant manager had thrown his laptop into the deep fryer, ruining both the laptop and deep fryer.
It's not just high tech gadgets which causes such rage. The BBC states that around 90 percent of people feel frustrated or angry after speaking with someone at a call centre. After moving house last year, I feel their pain as it took nine phone calls over 2 days resulting in 167 minutes on the phone just to get my phone switched over to the new address.
What astounds me is that organisations spend so much on advertising a product or service, and so little on ensuring that it is easy to use. In the end, if a consumer has had a bad experience with a product, no amount of advertising will tempt them to buy that brand again.
Companies instead should focus on improving a customers experience. This involves things such as recognizing and understanding the customers expectations and improving the quality of their interactions across all aspects of the company and its products and services.
Understanding expectations is about knowing what customers want to do, and how they would like to be treated. These expectations can be entirely different, depending on the nature of the visit. A customer ringing for support may have very different needs to one looking at the website, wanting to buy the product. Customer expectations can be driven by word-of-mouth, advertising and their own previous experiences.
To make this even more difficult, organisations now offer many ways for customers to interact with them. Email, websites, call centres and local branches all need to give consistent information, appropriate to the constraints of that medium. Different technologies persuade people in different ways, and some channels are more suited for some interactions than others.
If a company can't provide an adequate customer experience, angry customers, an eroding brand and lost revenue are sure to be the result. On the flipside, if an organisation or company can get its customer experience right, the benefits will include an increase in customer satisfaction, which leads to more sales. A differentiation in product/service will create a valuable competitive advantage, and improved brand perception will result in an increase in market share. - 16928
Worse still, an American research suggests that around 10% of consumers damage or even destroy their high tech gadgets out of frustration. In one case, it was discovered that a restaurant manager had thrown his laptop into the deep fryer, ruining both the laptop and deep fryer.
It's not just high tech gadgets which causes such rage. The BBC states that around 90 percent of people feel frustrated or angry after speaking with someone at a call centre. After moving house last year, I feel their pain as it took nine phone calls over 2 days resulting in 167 minutes on the phone just to get my phone switched over to the new address.
What astounds me is that organisations spend so much on advertising a product or service, and so little on ensuring that it is easy to use. In the end, if a consumer has had a bad experience with a product, no amount of advertising will tempt them to buy that brand again.
Companies instead should focus on improving a customers experience. This involves things such as recognizing and understanding the customers expectations and improving the quality of their interactions across all aspects of the company and its products and services.
Understanding expectations is about knowing what customers want to do, and how they would like to be treated. These expectations can be entirely different, depending on the nature of the visit. A customer ringing for support may have very different needs to one looking at the website, wanting to buy the product. Customer expectations can be driven by word-of-mouth, advertising and their own previous experiences.
To make this even more difficult, organisations now offer many ways for customers to interact with them. Email, websites, call centres and local branches all need to give consistent information, appropriate to the constraints of that medium. Different technologies persuade people in different ways, and some channels are more suited for some interactions than others.
If a company can't provide an adequate customer experience, angry customers, an eroding brand and lost revenue are sure to be the result. On the flipside, if an organisation or company can get its customer experience right, the benefits will include an increase in customer satisfaction, which leads to more sales. A differentiation in product/service will create a valuable competitive advantage, and improved brand perception will result in an increase in market share. - 16928
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