The Customer Experience
One common concern among executives today is ensuring that their organizations deliver an exceptional customer experience, whether that be through innovative products, equitable pricing, or stellar service. This is usually done as part of what's expected to be a profitable value exchange. For example: Company A sells a great product; engaged customers offer feedback. Organization B offers unmatched pricing; high-value customers spend more with that vendor to get the best deal. Business C delivers outstanding service; customers are equally respectful and polite.
The reality is, even when companies deliver on their promises, customers aren't always so great at keeping their part of the bargain, no matter what their expectations. This holds true for both the B2B and B2C arenas.
Customers, for instance, expect product innovation. Yet, when asked for feedback, usually only a small percentage of customers respond. On one hand, this is understandable. Feedback often lands in a black hole and customers have no idea if or how their input was used. Sometimes surveys are just too long.
On the other hand, if customers expect great products from a preferred vendor (whether it's a manufacturer or a hotel or anything in between) and are asked for their input, with rare exception they should give it. Respond to a survey, participate in a customer advisory panel, comment in a forum.
Similarly, while businesses should offer their goods and services at a fair price, customers should think twice before beating up vendors on pricing. They shouldn't expect Ritz-Carlton if they're only willing to pay for Days Inn. Sellers and buyers alike should think "value exchange," especially in this economy. For example: I'd like a discount on pricing, but I'll buy X percent more with you over this time period and guarantee to pay in 30 days. This is much more of a win-win than a customer saying, "Give me this price no matter how it affects your company or I'll take my business elsewhere."
Finally, the majority of customers expect salespeople, customer service agents, retail associates, and the like to treat them with courtesy and respect. But all too often customers are themselves rude, discourteous, and disrespectful. One visit to customerssuck.com or retail-sucks.com reveals a raft of appalling stories about customers behaving badly. Really, really badly.
Yes, we're all in business to serve customers. But not just because we're charitable; it is business after all. So as much as we want to deliver an exceptional experience to every customer, sometimes it may just be better for everyone involved to send the customer, as politely as possible, to the nearest competitor.
What's your biggest customer horror story?
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For a laugh about today's "spoiled" customers, check out this video, "Everything's Amazing, Nobody's Happy."
Related Entries
- Guest Blogger Joseph Jaffe: It's Better to Be S.A.F.E. Than Sorry
- Hoffman's Hot Seat: The Chief Customer Officer: Building a Customer Strategy
- Guest Blogger Ralph Heath: What Has Happened to Customer Service in America?
Hi Ginger
I expanded both sides of the discounting argument in a longer blog posting on 'Should You Ask for Steep Discounts' in a Recession at CustomerThink
http://www.customerthink.com/blog/should_you_ask_steep_discounts_recession
Graham Hill
Customer-driven Innovator
Hi B2B Supplier, Hi Ginger
I think my point was aimed at a broader market of customers and suppliers.
List prices always include a whole load of line-items, many of them hidden to customrs. Customers do their best to trade-off prices against quality and specification when buying. That is nothing new. And during tough times customers often opt for reduced quality rather paying the full price. Or for a reduced specification if they can. Sometimes they can even get the same quality or specification at the lower price. That is nothing new either.
If a customer asks for an unreasonable price, the supplier can always say no. The customer can then ask another supplier for the same price until he finds one willing to supply him or until he decides he will have to pay a higher price after all. In today's market, there are many suppliers willing to sell at a lower price to move stock, keep the production line moving or just hit outdated volume targets.
A savvy supplier recognising the change in market dynamics might try to understand exactly what the customer needs, what he is willing to pay for a product that exactly meets his needs (but offers nothing extra that he doesn't really need) and if he can produce it at the customer's price point, might try and disrupt the market with it. This applies to B2B as well as to B2C businesses.
These are tough times for suppliers as they are for customers. But the power currently lies in the hand of the customer, who should ask suppliers for a price reduction until the pips squeak! You never know, a disruptive supplier might give it to him and still be laughing all the way to the bank.
Darwin was right you know. Business is all about adaptation. Particularly in a recession. No business has a right to trade. They do so in competition with others. May the most disruptive business survive and thrive.
Graham Hill
Customer-driven Innovator
You make a great point that companies will find a way to recoup discounts, and quality is usually the first thing to suffer. I'm sure this happens far more than anyone would care to admit.
To me this is another reminder of why, in B2B especially, communication between buyer and supplier is so important--as is setting expectations from the outset.
It's a tad simplistic to site current economic conditions and to say customers "...should ask for discounts from vendors whenever and wherever they think they can get one". Ms. Conlon's point is more broad than that.
Of course discounts are needed in retail, both for customers who can't afford regular price and businesses that need to clear merchandise.
What you have to understand is that the business
(B2B or B2C) will keep this in mind when merchandising or offering their assortments or services.
I can guarantee you that these businesses will do whatever it takes to meet their margin requirements. And, going forward, guess who will suffer?
The first step will involve pricing that will allow for initial, then additional discounting. What do you think will happen when product and/or service must be priced to accommodate required margins? That's right. The product/service will suffer.
Quality will be lowered (in many cases, substantially). Innovative, unique product ideas that are meant to spark customer interest will be eliminated ("why take a chance on the unknown? As long as we can offer price, the customer will be satisfied").
True, these are difficult economic times. I would suggest that many customers are buying only because of steep discounts as opposed to required needs (a friend recently bought 2 overcoats and when asked why she needed both her response was "because they were so deeply discounted").
What bothers me most is that innovation and quality will suffer for the sake of low prices. I would like to see 'customer driven innovation' geared more toward product than pricing. It has been proven time and time again that customers will respond more positively to fresh ideas than just price.
If customers fully expect discounts (and continually demand further discounts) then they should be prepared for the lost quality and uniqueness these incentives will bear. Then, maybe, just maybe, 'customer driven innovation' will get back on the right track.
Graham,
Sure, customers should ask for better pricing. That's part of how business works. But, like companies shouldn't price gouge or charge absurd fees, customers should understand that a company can only go so low with its prices before that pricing could put its business at risk. Value exchanges and trusted partnerships should work both ways.
Hi Ginger
I agree that doing business shoud be about mutual value creation. Companies earn value through providing value to customers. But I disagree that customers shouldn't ask vendors for keener prices.
These are difficult times and customers have less disposable income. They should ask for discounts from vendors whenever and wherever they think they can get one. That doesn't mean that vendors have to give them a discount of course. And it most certainly doesn't mean that customers should be bad mannered if they don't receive one. The changing price dynamic is all part of markets adapting to changed economic circumstances.
As Darwin would have said, 'It is not the strongest of businesses that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one that is most adaptable to change".
Graham Hill
Customer-driven Innovator