Sales is the engine that drives your business. Customer satisfaction is the fuel. Your ability to satisfy your customers is the critical determinant of your success in driving sales and growing your business.
Perhaps the worst enemy of any relationship – be it between two friends, parent and child, employer and employee or a business and its customer is unmet Expectations. This unmet expectation at the very east causes friction. At worst, it can end a relationship.
There are four basic levels of Customer Satisfaction, all based on the degree to which you meet their expectation. The higher you rise, the more you will build customer loyalty and the greater will be your business success.
Meet Customer Expectations
The minimum requires to simple stay in business – to survive – is to meet the expectations of your customers. At this level, your customers have no complaints. They are satisfied for the moment. However they are most likely NOT loyal. If a competitor demonstrates that it can and will do ore than merely meet their expectations, they will very quickly become your ex-customers.
So What do your customers expect of you? You need to be very clear on this and you must make every effort every time to meet these expectations.
Exceed Customer Expectations
This higher level of customer satisfaction is reached by surprising your customer, going beyond what he or she expected. Fast, friendly service, followed up by a phone call to make sure everything is alright, might put you into this category. So does a product or service that is a level above that of your competitors.
Think of those times your own expectations have been exceeded. how did it make you feel? What was your attitude to this company? How might you exceed the expectations of your customers?
Delight Your Customers
Have you ever experienced a level of service that not only exceeded your expectations, but actually brought a smile to your face? A customer served at this level is truly delighted. Not only have their basic needs been met or even exceeded, they have truly been touched on an emotional level. And once they have enjoyed this experience, it will be very difficult for a competitor to pry them away. When you delight your customers, you are on the way to creating an exceptional and highly profitable business.
Delighting your customers is the third highest level of Customer satisfaction. The greater your success in delighting your customers, the greater success you will enjoy in your business.
Amaze Your Customers
The highest level of Customer service is what will propel your business into the stratosphere. It requires you to not just meet or exceed your customers’ experience, or simple to delight them, but to truly AMAZE them. When you are able to accomplish this on a regular basis, you will be in a position to dominate the marketplace, achieve marketable rates of revenue growth and profitability.
Examine your business! How might you amaze your customers? The only limitations here is your own imagination.
Clearly, one of keys to growing your business revenues and profit margins is to continually seek to improve the level of Customer Service. Getting your customers to the Delight or Amaze level of satisfaction separates you into the rare air of business dominance.