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Today, "it would be difficult to find a
company that doesn't proudly claim to be a
customer-oriented,
customer-focused, or even-customer driven enterprise. But look closer at
how these companies put their assertions into practice, and often you
discover an array of notions and assumptions that range from superficial and
incomplete to misguided."
Some examples of customer satisfaction illusion
include:
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believing that by conducting market
surveys and focus groups you know all there is to know about your
customers
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believing that investing in awareness
programs for
employees and putting customers' pictures on the cover of
your annual report is enough to achieve customer satisfaction
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believing that the job of CEO
is done by giving his or her direct phone number to some valued
customers
All these approaches are well intentioned, but
"all of them offer, at best, partial solution to their customer
satisfaction, and all, as a result, fall short." |
There is nothing wrong with the notion of
customer satisfaction per se. "The problem comes with its pursuit, which if
fraught with peril. Most plans to improve customer satisfaction stand on two
shaky – and dangerous –
assumptions."
What they create is an illusion – the customer satisfaction trap.
Two Dangerous Assumptions
① There is a reliable way to measure
customer satisfaction or even to agree on what it means.
② Once agreed upon, the customer
satisfaction measures provide your company with guidance and
direction.
Both assumptions are half-truths at
best, and two half-truths don't make a whole. Too often,
measurement of customer satisfaction are misleading – they tell you
very little about where you are, and they can't show you where to go.
>> 
Learn from Tommy
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