Profits Come From Sales Multiplied by Profit Margin Per Dollar Sale. Increase Your Business Profit by Focusing on Profitable Customer Retention, Rather Than High Risk Acquisition Campaigns
The key determinant of marketing success is not fussing about the best measurement of customer satisfaction, or talking a lot about customer satisfaction. It is doing something about it. When satisfaction rankings improve, shareholder value increases.
Since the invention of the computer chip, we have been moving from an industrial to a post-industrial economy, where the nature of work is changing. In an industrial society, workers are expected to fit standardized job descriptions and perform their duties according to clear policies, procedures and prescriptions.
Knowledge work is fundamentally different: Workers are expected not so much to perform standard roles but to generate creative, innovative results that surprise and delight customers and colleagues. They are expected not only to perform a function but to design new and better products and services, and even to provide dramatic, breakthrough results.
Dave Gray
Game Storming
Not paying attention to customer satisfaction has been bad for business and America. Customer satisfaction creation is a major creator of capital. The proof is in the numbers. According to Heskett, Sasser abd Schlesinger, between 1986 and 1995, the common stock price of the companies they studied increased by 147%. On the other hand, General Motors (GM - particularly its Pontiac Division) did not respond to the voice of the customer and by 1989 its market share had slipped to under 33%!A Cleveland driver paid to register his van and truck the day before his birthday, but got stuck with late fees because the Bureau of Motor Vehicles office insisted his birthday was three weeks earlier. The clerk's response when the man produced a driver's license with his correct birthday? Sorry; we can't update the computer record or refund the penalty.
The driver, Willie Robinson, called the BMV after paying his fine, and was told he'd have to pay another fee to have his birthday corrected in the Bureau's computer system:
When I called the BMV in Columbus, I was told I could run into the same problem next year if the BMV didn't fix its computer record. But they said if they corrected it, the bureau would have to issue me replacement stickers and that would cost "at least" $15 per vehicle, maybe more. Plus, they said they won't refund the $40 I already paid in late fees.Robinson took his case to the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Sheryl Harris, who intervened on his behalf.
After investigating its records, the BMV agrees that a BMV employee mistyped information somewhere along the line. It has corrected the error. The agency is refunding the $40 you paid in late fees and issuing you replacement stickers at no added cost to you, spokeswoman Lindsey Bohrer said.The BMV's apology was not without some finger-wagging, and a defense of a system that relies on contract workers with limited authority:
In defense of the BMV, Bohrer said that deputy registrars -- people who work in offices scattered about the state -- are contract employees and are not able to fix erroneous date-of-birth entries in computers. ...[The BMV's Rachel Eaton] said consumers have a responsibility to review registration forms for errors because when they sign they are attesting the information is correct.
If public employees were paid by performance, a lot of them would be out of work!
The mistake that many companies make in efforts to improve their customer satisfaction is to try to improve too many things at once. The trick is to focus on the product or service features that most determine customer satisfaction. Keep it simple and reward employees for improving performance.
"Outcare the next guy. It's customer service. You need to care, word of mouth is what builds businesses and word of mouth is now on steroids. If you don't give good customer service, they are going to tell their friends. Period" - Gary Vaynerchuk
