Take a look at a recent interview that Evans on Marketing did with Rachel Levy Sarfin of OnlyIT.ca on how companies can improve the customer shopping experience.
As Sarfin says: “The well-known adage of ‘the customer is always right’ is no longer enough to improve the shopping experience for today’s consumers. Customers hold certain expectations of their interactions with businesses, and in the Digital Age, if those expectations are not met, they will share their displeasure with thousands of people through social media.”
Click the image to read the interview.
I thought this article was interesting because customer satisfaction is extremely important especially with the growth of social media. An unhappy customer could cause many issues by simply writing a nasty status or using a website such a yelp. Unhappy customers can be toxic to a company and their reputation.
Customer satisfaction is probably the most important objective for any company. A customer’s level of satisfaction greatly determines a company’s reputation and likelihood of being recommended to others. I would agree that communication is crucial in order for customers to be happy. From personal experience, making purchases online often comes with last minute high shipping and handling fees. However, if companies offer more promotions, or are upfront about extra cost, customers would not be dissatisfied.
I agree that companies should be more honest and upront with their customers. Customers have certain expectations that companies should really try to keep up with, especially with the growing use of online shopping. Businesses need to start taking this more into consideration and offer ways to make the shopping experience for the customer more pleasant. A good example from the article was providing concise shipping and handling information, which would lead to less complaints.
I also agree that customer service is the most important objective for companies, and that one unhappy customer can negatively affect a company more than one would believe. Companies need to realize that in today’s society filled with social media sites and review sites (such as yelp), word travels fast, and unfortunately people tend to talk about bad more than good. Most people are more likely to report on bad experiences than good/average ones. Companies need to put major emphasis on their customer service in order to survive today.
I found this article very relatable, I work at the Hofstra Help Desk and I agree that customer service is very important for customer satisfaction. I also agree that being honest about how long an issue may be resolved is the best way for the reason that people who call with an issue will call back and if the issue is not resolved in a timely manner or the time in which it was said to be there could be further issues. It is important for any company or organization to have these strong customer service skills to keep the a consumer happy and coming back.
I am yet another person who agrees that customer service and satisfaction are the most important objectives for a company. I really agreed with the point about the power of communication with customers. As a customer of a plethora of different companies, I can vouch for how inconvenient and bothersome it is when I cannot easily find contact information of a company. As a customer, I believe I should be treated with respect and have access to any help I need, without any problems accessing that help. As Professor Evans wrote, opening a channel of communication will involve receiving negative feedback. Many times when I contact a company it involves a complaint, but when the company answers my complaint, I quickly become a satisfied customer again. If it is hard for me to contact the company and get help with any problems of difficulties I am facing, it will make me even more dis-sastified than I already may be.
Customer satisfaction is literally the most important thing for a company to look out for. As a consumer, if the customer service is not good, I will never order from the company again. Companies need to be straight forward with us about what we should expect, especially the return policies and if there is even one. Also, as stated in the article they should keep prices consistent. There are always different prices between the in store price and the online price. In Toys R Us especially, everytime I look an item up online and go to the store to buy it the price is always more then I have to show the cashier the online price in order for them to switch it. Sometimes companies should make the price the same in both instances so I would not have to waste my time researching it online again. Also, an honesty code on how long a resolution is going to take would also be helpful. Especially when speaking to Hofstra departments, they always say something will be done quickly, and you have to keep on calling them and following up because they take forever with the process, and half the time they do not even answer your calls. They need to just tell us if the process will take days, and in there case it is usually weeks for anything to be resolved or looked at.
Reblogged this on bigdifferenceoflife.