Customer
Satisfaction
Strategy

The Problem with Customer Satisfaction

The problem with satisfaction is just this simple: It sets the bar too low–so low, in fact, that it doesn’t actually impact a company’s sales results.

Every interaction between staff and customers has the possibility of transcending satisfaction in powerful (but subtle) ways. Nevertheless, whether the customer interaction involves a receptionist, a broker or a customer service associate, we rarely find that companies plan, manage or measure anything beyond basic satisfaction. This is a clear mistake.

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The Pros & Cons of Surveys

Surveys are often plagued with biases and inaccuracies. The really big problem is that the information they omit or obscure can be what’s most central to increasing customer loyalty.

While customer satisfaction surveys make up a huge industry, which is not going away anytime soon, we find that companies frequently use poorly designed surveys that run counter to their best interests.

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The Pros & Cons of Net Promoter Score

While easy to understand, Net Promoter Score is not the final answer in customer satisfaction measurement.

Net Promoter asks customers how likely they would be to refer a friend to a particular company. Mostly, we find that customers do not engage with this question or respond to it in a reflective or meaningful way.

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Benchmarking: Why? How?

In spite of benchmarking’s popularity, some critics have called it a short-sighted, surface approach.

When it comes to customer service, we find that too many companies disregard their unique sales propositions in favor of “what the other guys are doing.” But copy-cat approaches don’t define how your customer interactions need to unfold to reflect your specific brand and business objectives.

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Other Ways to Measure Satisfaction

Using multiple lenses and methods to gauge customer satisfaction ensures that your measurement is accurate and complete.

Too often customer satisfaction is reduced to a simple equation that compares customer expectations to customer perceptions (E-P = Opportunity).

In fact, there are many contexts and points of view relevant to the discussion of customer satisfaction. For instance, other than E-P, other key facts that inform customer satisfaction are company vs. competitor comparisons, company vs. comparable company

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Death of the Experience Economy

Everyone wants a terrific experience, but implementation is a different matter.

It’s been 9 years now since the publication of Joseph Pine and James Gilmore’s influential book, The Experience Economy. Their excellent work has inspired thousands of conference sessions in nearly every industry, all devoted to the importance of excelling with the customer experience.

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Loyalty and the Interaction Economy

Even as the philosophy behind the “Experience Economy” has taken root with marketing strategists, a new way of creating value via loyalty rather than premium price is beginning to emerge.

The 1999 bestseller The Experience Economy by B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore extolled the importance of creating a vivid, memorable customer experience. Its observation that companies could charge more for the customer experience than they could for actual goods or services quickly gained favor among marketing strategists.

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Self-Service Would be Used More if…

Customers would use More Self Service if Self- Service Providers Thought More about Design

By Ryann Liebenthal, Interaction Metrics Research Lead and Customer Experience Enthusiast

I recently found myself buying party supplies at my neighborhood Fred Meyer. When it came time to check out I stood in front of the registers with my cart overflowing, groaning at the thought of waiting in one of those mega-lines. Then I noticed that no one was standing in the self-checkout area, so I turned my cart in that direction…

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