Is This The Way You Engage Your Customers!!!! – (part 2)

In my last blog, I have written on how bad a customer service can be. So to continue with this topic, I would like to write on how we can build customer satisfaction. Developing the right methods to gauge customer satisfaction for any organizations can be summarized as below:-

1. Understanding the organization’s goals, vision and mission and core competencies. These will affect the performance measures of what you are developing. For example, if your vision is to become a luxury product supplier, then your measures will focus more on quality rather than costs.

2. Understanding customer touchpoints. Customer touchpoints are those interactions a customer has before, during and after a transaction in respect to a purchase of your products/ services/ brand. These can be face-to-face contacts, receipts, offerings, websites and so on. Understanding the customer touchpoints is like mapping the customer internal processes to meet his needs or expectations anytime. Lists, improve and measure all the customers touchpoints in your departments/ personnel/ functions that will affect your customers experience.

3. Determine your customers’ needs at the touchpoints. Below table shows some examples of customers’ needs. List and see what is relevant to your business and customize the performance measurements which may impact your customers’ satisfaction. For example, if you’re a retailer and the availability of your products is critical for your outlet, ensure that your stocks are replenished more frequently to avoid out of stock situations for your customers.

Performance measures on customer satisfaction may vary from one business to another. However, it is crucial to align the measures to the organization’s business objectives and relate them to financial performance. Some performance measurements that we should not neglect are as below:-

1. Level of customer satisfaction
2. Customer retention
3. Customer purchasing behavior (volume and frequency)

From these measurements, the development of a customer-centric organization can be clearly defined and the above will give you a rough guide to improve customer satisfaction.