4.2.3 Theme One - Customer Expectation
100% of the respondents understand the value of good customer service and relationship as the way to retain their customers. The finding in the study was that, SMME owners and managers have a drive and understanding on meeting customer needs. Their approaches to customer retention are different but have the same goal that is to meet customer needs. These approaches ranges from, keeping customers happy at all times, providing variety of products or services, reliability, treating them as friends than customers, and partnering with the customers. In contrast to this, SMME stakeholders had a different view when it comes to SMMEs’ customer service and relationship. Both SMME stakeholders agreed that, SMMEs do not keep promises and that impact their relationship with their customers. The problem of failing to keep promises has resulted to customers leaving and finding other service providers. Based on the above argument, SMMEs owners and managers seem to have ways to keep their customers but they might not be working to their advantage. SMMEs stakeholders have confirmed that, SMMEs they lose their customers due to failure in keeping promises. This explains the low demand concern raised by respondent five.
On the other hand, SMMEs owners
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Wilmot (2012:135) concluded that, meeting customer expectation is vital for the success and growth of SMMEs. Therefore, maintaining good customer service and relationships as well as having a strong commitment to product or service quality has a positive impact in customer retention. According to Dorfman (2007: 28) cited in Wilmot (2012:40), customer satisfaction strategies that can be implemented by SMMEs include, paying attention to customer needs, ensuring that customer are receiving good customer service, and knowing your customer contributes in building the trust that will translated into a long lasting
Without good customer service and keeping your promises, your company would have loyal customers. According to 5 Focusing Steps, “If you’re not yet sold on the idea, consider that a 2 percent increase in customer retention has the same effect as decreasing costs by 10 percent. Not only that, but it costs over six times more to get a new customer than it does to keep one.” Customer satisfaction should be a golden rule of all companies.
Customer satisfaction is a fundamental marketing construct in the last decades. The concept was not popular in the past and not accepted as well because companies thought it was more important to gain new customers than retain the current customers. However, presently, companies have greater understanding of the significance of customer satisfaction and adopted it as a high priority operational goal. Measuring the level of customer satisfaction is very important for today’s businesses. Businesses can apply these measurements to improve their business results. Consumer satisfaction is a central concept in modern marketing practice. The marketing concept makes much of delivering satisfaction to the customers and obtaining profits in return (Swan and Combs, 2005).
Customer relationship management: the companies that focus on satisfying their customers and create for them a superior value will build and maintain profitable customer relationships. The satisfied customer is more trusted than others because it awards the company a great share of business
1.1 Explain the value of customer service as a competitive tool Customer service is valued as a competitive tool by many organisations. It gives you the ability to gain customer loyalty while meeting the customer’s expectations. Staff will have the skills and knowledge that will provide a competitive edge. Most organisations are known for the quality of their customer service. This means that they are known for good customer service or poor customer service.
When a customer is loyal he or she will definitely repeat purchase and even advertise your organization through word of mouth. Customer loyalty is the act of customers buying repeatedly as opposed to choosing those of competitors (Wyse, 2012). The impact of customer satisfaction on customer loyalty was showed in a study conducted by Mitchell (2004) who revealed a positive relationship between customer satisfaction and loyalty. Customer loyalty requires that firms or organizations meet their customers’ needs and demands in order to maintain a long lasting relationship (Campton, 2004). Coldburn (2013) also showed that satisfaction and loyalty goes together. The author indicated in his/her study that as far as customers expectation of a products or services are met, they remain loyal to the organization. An increase in satisfaction then lead to an increase in a company’s profits (Cacioappo, 2000).Eckert emphasizes that loyal customers according to are more likely to purchase or to recommend the purchase of a company’s products and services to someone else. The opposite is also true. Dissatisfied customers are likely to tell others the experiences they had with firms. Firms therefore will need to improve their customer satisfaction in order to grow loyalty and attract new customers (Agarwal,
According to Business Studies ‘’Customer service is one of the most important ingredients of the marketing mix for products and services. High quality customer service helps to create customer loyalty. Customers today are not only interested in the product they are being offered but all the additional elements of service that they receive from the greeting they receive when they enter a retail outlet, to the refund and help that they receive when they have a complaint about a faulty product that they have paid for’’ (Business Studies, n.d).
However, the rapid changing taste of customer has made the market more competitive. The arrival of satellite has exposed consumers to many foreign products which they are willing to give a try. The growing importances of customers have a great impact on Ms T manager’s work. This can be shown when Ms T claimed that it is important for a marketing manager to comprehend customer needs and wants in order to stay at top of the business market. As a marketing manager of Company A, Ms T has conducted a market research recently and found out that customer nowadays concentrated more on the efficiency and service quality. Efficiency refers as obtaining the maximum amount output from the minimum amount of input. (Coulter &Robbins, 2014). Ms T seemed to realise that good customer service quality is the key element for customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. The consequences of perceived service quality on preference of customer loyalty will lead to a more favourable intention on service provider and increase the chance for customers to re-patronise (Akbar&Parvez, 2009) In addition, Ms T has used Henri Fayol’s four management function , planning , organising, leading and controlling . Planning is a management function that involves establishing aim, implementing way to achieve goal and form plans to coordinate activites
As I mentioned earlier, the customer services is now the most essential part of all service re-lated companies or institutions. They have to give supports to save their business. However, in the high-priced world, it is now becoming more expensive for SME companies.
Customer satisfaction is one of the most essential elements of customer retention, customer loyalty, and product repurchase. The art and science of customer satisfaction involves strategically focusing on creating and reinforcing pleasurable experiences.
It's very well known that a companies success is not only dependant on the possession of a good product or service, but the key aspect to a successful business is excellent customer service. As the market grows, now more then ever companies are emerging, they are offering very similar types of products and services. Successful customer service can be a way a business becomes original and unique, it can be the key to attracting and maintaining loyal customers. Good customer service can start-up a business while bad customer service can harm a company. An average customer that experiences an issue will complaint to 9-10 people about the problem. A customer that received support to their problem and a potential solution will tell at least five
A long-lasting relationship is seen to be more profitable than constantly trying to attract new customers to single purchases. The focus in service marketing is therefore to create a valuable long-lasting relationship with the customer(Grönroos, 1994).
Customer satisfaction is a key ingredient to the success of any business.It is the most important factor that creates repeated customers. Some people know it but do not realize its importance. If a customer of yours is satisfied with one of your products or services, chances are this customer will purchase more of your products or services, which will increase your revenue. Therefore, in order to have your new or existing customers buy more from you, you will have to follow techniques that work. Customer satisfaction takes a very important place in Marketing. As much as you think that your marketing strategies should help you generate sales, think about how the same marketing strategies could help you achieve Customer satisfaction. There are a lot of elements involved with Customer satisfaction.
To avoid customer dissatisfaction companies must learn to manage their customers’ expectations by painting a true picture of the scenario and future deliverables. Companies should factor in all customizations and special circumstances when making their service promises. Companies should avoid the trap of over-promising or promoting themselves as something they are not. In the current competitive market, although it is extremely tempting to pad ones achievements, a customer that makes realistic promises and delivers on them is more likely to retain its customers than one that makes big promises but is unable to deliver. It is never about just closing the sale. Closing a sale has no meaning when the follow up to this is an unhappy customer or a cancelled
Performance in customer satisfaction is a significant factor in long-term success of the company. The key performance variables are repeat orders and the rate of customer acquisition. If you have satisfied customers, you retain those you have and get new ones at a rapid rate as it gives out positive word-of-mouth. Your evaluation of performance in customer satisfaction highlights potential problems for overall performance of the organization. Other factors that are related to customer service which increase level of performance measure of company are the reliability, production quality and quantity, and internal indicators such as employees training, market performance, customer retention and financial factors which regards the cost of
...stomer service is essential in any organization. Its importance has positive implications on the business. Having an excellent customer service will motivate the organization’s employees. This will result in a win-win situation because a happy employee is a productive employee. When a motivated employee helps customers he/she will ensure that the customers are satisfied in a way that exceeds their expectations. These customers will then go out in to the public and share their experience with friends who will eventually patronize the business. In the long run the business gains more customers and increases its profits. Therefore, every organization should attempt to implement and preserve an excellent customer service strategy. This will give the organization a competitive edge above other organizations and establish a reputable image every business entity long for.