Customer Satisfaction Report-- Attending to Customers PDF

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Customer Satisfaction Report "Ways to attend to Customers in order to ensure Customer Satisfaction" Three priorities to enable organizations to exceed at their best....

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October 25, 2021 Prepared by: Sydney Barnes-Grant Energinet

“Ways to Attend to Customers in an Organization in Order to Ensure Customer Satisfaction” Exceptional customer service is key to distinguishing thriving organizations from those that are doomed to fail. Guaranteed optimal customer service requires strategy, research, resources, training, dedicated employees, and superior product quality. Customer satisfaction comes from an organization’s ability to consider the entire customer experience and meet customer expectations. Gartner, Inc. conducted a study in which they found 89% of companies consider customer service as part of their competitive strategy for success (“Simple Ways to Ensure Customer Satisfaction”). Devoting the time, energy, and resources to customer satisfaction is not only vital to an organization’s success, it is also a financially responsible investment. United States’ businesses collectively spend $1.6 trillion annually on “customer frustration” otherwise known as lack of customer satisfaction (“Simple Ways to Ensure Customer Satisfaction”). While there are a multitude of different approaches to ensuring customer satisfaction; organizations that proactively listen to their customers, practice honesty, and provide quality products or services are sure to exceed their customers’ needs. Proactively listening to customers is the first step to ensuring customer satisfaction. While that may sound simple, there are methods of collecting and incorporating customer feedback to most efficiently and effectively address customer needs. When seeking important information from customers, an organization needs to consider the entire customer experience and journey for truly valuable input and results. Making sure customer support is available in every step of the customer’s interaction with the organization is fundamental to collecting well-rounded and useful information. This can be done by having people available on-site or easily accessed by phone or email to answer questions and aid in their process of researching and purchasing the available goods or services. To clarify, “easily accessed” customer support requires short wait times, quick responses and expert information in order to be effective. Additionally, questions asked should be tracked and found trends should be used as data to help streamline and improve upon product description and/or product availability. While providing customer support and collecting customer feedback is important during a customer's pre-purchase experience, it is also key to collect information from customers post-purchase. Maintaining post-purchase relationships with customers is extremely useful for an organization’s success. Building and nurturing relationships with customers after purchase of their goods or services can increase chances of repeat customers and can lead to increased business based on word of mouth. A study distributed by Forbes states that 64% of marketing executives believe word of mouth to be the most effective method of marketing. Furthermore,

92% of people believe recommendations from friends and family above any other form of advertising (Whitler, Kimberly A.). Investing time and resources into becoming a customer-centric organization by proactively seeking feedback at all stages of a customer’s journey and making changes accordingly is essential for achieving customer satisfaction. Transparency and honesty are crucial to providing customer satisfaction. People value business integrity and have the right to know what they are purchasing as well as the price and the quality of the goods or services. Customers deserve straightforward information about prices, costs, brands, products, services, terms, return policies, etc. All details for goods or services should be clearly defined, stated, and accessible to help customers make the best informed decisions for themselves and in turn, achieve satisfaction. Utilizing the information received from customer feedback by effectively listening to customers, organizations have keen insight into what their customers want and need. It is vital for customer satisfaction that companies are transparent in their advertising, information divulged, and in their customer support. This transparency is important for their employees as well. Happy and informed employees provide more honest sales pitches, services, and expert support which further nurtures a long lasting relationship between organization and customer. Transparency is key for an organization’s profitability and customer satisfaction. According to a recent article, 45% of customers are willing to spend more money for superior customer service (Alton, Larry). Honesty with customers, transparent access to accurate information, and timely resolution of any issues that may arise are vital to retaining customers and increasing customer satisfaction. Producing quality products or services is the most straightforward method of ensuring customer satisfaction. If an organization’s goods and services do not align with customer expectations then the customer will never reach satisfaction. As a result, to attain customer contentment a company’s goal is to offer exceptional products and services at all times. Only when a customer’s fears are quelled and expectations met does an organization stand a chance of achieving customer satisfaction (“4 Ways to Ensure Customer Satisfaction”). A quality product coupled with transparency creates trust between business and customer that can lead to unshakeable customer loyalty and increase marketing by word of mouth. Product and service quality should be emphasized by all organizations as an important strategy in the aim to ensure customer satisfaction. Providing customer satisfaction should be the overarching goal of any organization. Without catering to customer’s needs, no business can succeed for long. Proactively listening to customers and adjusting according to feedback allows for customers to be heard and organizations to adapt to social and market changes. Organization transparency, honesty and producing quality goods or services are vital to building customer trust and longevity. Building customer loyalty is the most efficient and effective way to ensure customer satisfaction and long-term success of an organization.

Works Cited

“4 Ways to Ensure Customer Satisfaction.” USA's #1 Service Management Software, 16 July 2021, https://www.joblogic.com/us/blog/ways-to-ensure-customer-satisfaction/. Alton, Larry. “Why Quality Is the Most Important Thing to Your Customers.” MyCustomer, 28 July 2016, https://www.mycustomer.com/community/blogs/larryalton/why-quality-is-the-most-impo rtant-thing-to-your-customers#:~:text=Customers%20always%20come%20back%20whe n,product%20or%20service%20to%20others. “Simple Ways to Ensure Customer Satisfaction.” Sererra, 21 Feb. 2017, https://sererra.com/simple-ways-ensure-customer-satisfaction/. Whitler, Kimberly A. “Why Word of Mouth Marketing Is the Most Important Social Media.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 9 Sept. 2019, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2014/07/17/why-word-of-mouth-marketin g-is-the-most-important-social-media/?sh=4dd662cd54a8....