csm Customer satisfaction can help your business to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

Its about understanding the way a customer feels after purchasing a product or service and, in particular, whether or not that product or service met the customers expectations. Customers primarily form their expectations through past purchasing experiences, word-ofmouth from family, friends and colleagues and information delivered through marketing activities, such as advertising or public relations. If the customers expectation isnt met, they will be dissatisfied and its very likely they will tell others about their experience. Why customer satisfaction is important Dont underestimate the value of customer satisfaction. Its becoming an important area of competition. A high level of satisfaction can deliver many benefits, including:

Loyalty: a highly satisfied customer is a loyal customer. Repeat purchase: a highly satisfied customer buys more products. Referrals: a highly satisfied customer tells their family and friends about the product or service. Retention: a highly satisfied customer is less likely to switch brands. Reduced costs: a highly satisfied customer costs less to serve than a new customer.

Premium prices: a highly satisfied customer is willing to pay more for the product or serCustomer satisfaction research Satisfaction surveys are an important method for collecting information about how your customers think and feel about your brand, product or service. A satisfaction survey can help you to understand the expectations of your customers, determine whether your customers believe you are meeting those expectations, identify new customer requirements or trends in the market and determine what areas of your business need investment. A good customer satisfaction survey will also help you to understand the causes of dissatisfaction among your customers. Once youve identified these issues, youll be able to implement new practices to improve customer satisfaction. Many businesses systematically measure customer satisfaction through independent surveys, feedback forms, mystery shopping and focus groups. Some third party surveys also compare the customer satisfaction of major competitors, which allows companies to benchmark themselves in their relevant sector.

Measuring customer satisfaction doesnt have to be expensive. It can be as simple as preparing a short feedback form or conducting a brief telephone interview that asks the customer to rate the product or service on a number of criteria. Indicators of customer satisfaction An important indicator of customer satisfaction is the customer retention rate. To calculate your customer retention rate, you will need to capture data about the total number of customers and the number of customers switching brands. If you track this information over time, youll be able to see whether you are improving your customer retention and satisfaction. Another tool that has been introduced in Australia is the Net Promoter Scores, which provide a new metric for measuring customer loyalty. The Net Promoter Scores ask one simple question about whether a customer would recommend a product or service to a friend or colleague. This question has been identified as the ultimate determinant of customer satisfaction or loyalty. Research in the UK and the US has found a clear correlation between the Net Promoter Scores and revenue growth, illustrating the importance of customer satisfaction to future growth potential. For more information about the Net Promoter Scores visit www.mbs.edu.

vice.

Browse: Home / Consumer Satisfaction Survey

Consumer Satisfaction Surveys Assess Your Audience

Online consumer satisfaction surveys measure and monitor the opinions and behaviors of your clients and customers. The customer is always right that is why it makes smart business sense to regularly get feedback from your current clients and customers. Online consumer satisfaction surveys can accomplish this task easily and affordably. Consumer satisfaction surveys cover the core issues important to your organization. They identify areas that necessitate improvement and can enhance the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. At the same time, consumer satisfaction surveys can increase customer loyalty by showing your customers that you care about meeting their needs.

Benefits of Consumer Satisfaction Surveys

The benefits of conducting consumer satisfaction surveys are significant and their impact can last long after the results are analyzed. Consumer satisfaction surveys can be used to:

Improve brand perception

Increase loyalty and retention Identify areas that need improvement Identify upgrade opportunities Test new products, services, offers and pricing

customer satisfaction

Definition
The degree of satisfaction provided by the goods or services of a company as measured by the number of repeat customers. Ads by Google

Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/customer-satisfaction.html#ixzz1qtcVPdWC

veryone talks about customer satisfaction and some see it as the holy grail of a customercentric business. But what is it really? Is there a simple basic definition?

Contradictory message? On Wikipedia, customer satisfaction is defined as Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. But that seems off when you look at the separate definitions of the two words that comprise the term. So lets take a look at Dictionary.com:

customer
[kuhs-tuh-mer] -noun 1. a person who purchases goods or services from another;buyer; patron. 2. Informal . a person one has to deal with: a tough customer;a cool customer. Origin: 140050; late ME; see custom, -er1 ; cf. ME customer collectorof customs < AF; OF costumier, c. ML custum?rius; see customary customer. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/customer Show IPA

satisfaction
[sat-is-fak-shuh n] -noun 1. an act of satisfying; fulfillment; gratification. 2. the state of being satisfied; contentment. 3. the cause or means of being satisfied. 4. confident acceptance of something as satisfactory,dependable, true, etc. 5. reparation or compensation, as for a wrong or injury. 6. the opportunity to redress or right a wrong, as by a duel. 7. payment or discharge, as of a debt or obligation. 8. Ecclesiastical .
a. an act of doing penance or making reparation for venialsin. b. the penance or reparation made.

Show IPA

Origin: 12501300; < L satisfacti?n-

(s. of satisfacti? ) a doing enough,equiv. to satisfact ( us ) (ptp. of satisfacere, equiv. to satis en ough + facere to make, do1 ) + -i?n- -ion; r. ME satisfaccioun < AF < L, as above satisfaction. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/satisfaction Well, I dont think well have any issues with the definition of customer but satisfaction doesnt seem to include surpassing the customers expectation.
How Do I Define Customer Satisfaction?

Based on these accepted definitions (Dictionary.com gets there definitions from the Random House dictionary and other accepted references), I propose a definition that is much closer to what the words customer satisfaction actually mean. Customer satisfaction is the act of just doing enough to be acceptable to a customer. It is simply meeting basic expectations. Ouch! Thats very different from Wikipedias definition and worlds away from how many companies view customer satisfaction.
Should Customer Satisfaction Be Your Objective?

So, based on this definition, do you really want to do just enough for your customers? You may decide that this is your business model But if you want to build loyalty and generate word of mouth marketing, you should really consider going further. Define the customer experience that you want to deliver and aim for customer excellence. So, what do you think? Am I wrong in defining the term based on accepted real-word definitions? Or should we continue using the definition that the corporate world thinks it should be?

Login or register now to comment!

Feed: Customer Excellence by Eric Jacques Original article

Other Posts by Eric Jacques 10 Tips to Successfully Outsource Customer Service - March 9, 2011 Five Ways to Increase Customer Loyalty - March 2, 2011 Do You Make These Mistakes When Looking for Customer Feedback? - February 23, 2011 Customer Service: Getting to the Root of the Issue - February 20, 2011 Smiling Not Just for Customer Service - January 26, 2011 Related Posts Are You Ignoring the Social Inspiration People Metrics? April 1, 2012 by PamMoore Do Some Research In Motion and Dump Your Customers March 30, 2012 by AndyHanselman Top 10 Call Center Trends for 2012 March 30, 2012 by ozaibak Five Great Mobile Customer Service Apps March 29, 2012 by lauren_software... Are Customers Driving Contact Centers Towards Social Care? March 29, 2012 by Walter Van Norden Already a member? Login now to comment! Not a member? Register to comment!

Like it? 7

Jay Deragon said:

Everyone is chasing customer satisfaction yet again and they think the use of social media is important to the measures. The problem with that strategy is that if you simply achieve customer satisfaction It is simply meeting basic expectations. You loose!

You can run surveys, measure engagement, test theries etc. etc. but unless you go way beyond what is expected you will never win. Most customers don't really know what would exceed their expectations because they have never experienced it. Using simply surveys to define what needs to be done to be "customer focused" is like driving by looking in the rear view mirror, crash! Steve Jobs looked ahead of what the customer expected then made the competition chase the bar he set. Lets now waste time asking the customer what they want, like or expect because the frame of reference is what they got, didn't like as the bar of expectation. Change the bar by innovating and instead of running survey's and trying to measure satisfaction you become the new paradigm of satisfaction. The difference is being behind or ahead of customer satisfaction

Login or register now to comment!

Abstract:The objectives of this article are to explain the importance of company culture and to point to the appropriateness of customer orientation as a method of expressing culture. The article further determines the connection between customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction and points to possible resistance when creating company culture through customer orientation. It further defines the relation between company mission and culture and explains the significance of researching value and researching customer satisfaction as basic preconditions of customer orientation in culture.