The Importance of Customer Satisfaction in Business Growth

Assignment Task

Overview

This week’s readings will uncover the importance of customer satisfaction and how customers develop relationships with brands/products. Marketers are interested in their customers’ assessment of how their company is doing. Customer evaluations come in many forms: customer satisfaction, perceptions of quality, customers’ intentions to repurchase the same brand or from the same provider, the likelihood that a customer will generate word-of-mouth (speaking favorably to friends, family, and coworkers), etc. Marketers know that satisfied customers contribute to the bottom line. Truly loyal customers love the brand, purchase frequently, are zealous in telling others about it, and are even willing to pay more for the brand and all it means to them. When consumers buy something, marketers think that they evaluate the goodness of the purchase against some sort of expectation. There are three possible outcomes: If customers’ experiences surpass their expectations à customers are delighted! If customers’ experiences meet their expectations à customers are satisfied. If customers’ experiences fall short of their expectations à customers are dissatisfied.

The comparative evaluation process is thought to operate whether the purchase is low or high involvement. For the low-involvement purchase (e.g., toothpaste), the process may be nearly instantaneous and equally quickly forgotten. Even so, when the consumers got the toothpaste home, if it was somehow different (e.g., the packaging looked different or the taste seemed extra minty), it would prompt them to think about the toothpaste more than they normally do. Their expectations, while normally tucked away, will come to the forefront and serve as the basis for the comparison. Marketing mix elements originating from the company include positioning claims made in advertising, suggestions of quality inferred from the price point or the frequency of sales and coupons, inferences we draw from the exclusivity (or not) of the distribution outlets in which the merchandise is available, product performance descriptions from retail salespeople, and so on. It is usually the most detailed and, in many ways, more objective than their subjective personal experiences or those of their friends. Yet consumers trust this source of information the least because they expect the company to say good things about its products. Customers evaluate companies and brands based on every data point they see. To better understand all that entails the customer experience, marketers have suggested mapping the shopping experience as a flowchart. A flowchart allows marketers to understand the company from the eyes of the consumer and helps them understand what corporate elements must be in place to support the frontline in their attempts to provide superior service. Flowcharts have been used to generate quality measures at each stage and suggest system redesigns to streamline and make systems more efficient for both customers and employees.

The readings will emphasize why marketing research is important to the development of a strong marketing strategy, as well as, the tools that can be used during the process. Marketing research can be used to address just about any business question, and there are many ways to do so, including the six following techniques: Cluster analysis for segmentation Perceptual mapping for positioning Focus groups for concept testing (in new products or advertising) Conjoint for testing attributes (in pricing, new products, or branding) Scanner data for pricing and coupon experiments and brand switching Surveys for assessing customer satisfaction. 

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