From Dictionary.com
sat·is·fac·tion – The fulfilment or gratification of a desire, a need, or an appetite.
Customer satisfaction is an oft mentioned measure for marketers to watch. Yet, is increasingly becoming a nonsensical measure.
You can see the questions on the Satisfaction survey:
- How did you rate our product?
- What did you think of the service you received?
- Did your delivery arrive on time?
- Did you experience any billing issues?
- How were our staff to deal with?
In today’s markets, if the answer to these questions is anything less than excellent, you have problems. Satisfaction has become only the entry level to play in the market. You can’t differentiate your business around customer satisfaction.
Great companies are no longer built on satisfied customers, they need to go so much further. With satisfaction, there is no sense of stretching the customer, educating them what the possibilities are, building dialog with the customer – nothing.
And yet this is what great relationships are about – conversation and education. In these times the questions become:
- Have I understood you properly?
- What have you learnt from our relationship?
- What have I learnt from our relationship?
- Have I been able to exceed your expectations?
- How can I continue to do this into the future?
In ReImagine, Tom Peters talks about Customer Success. I talk about Customer Leadership. These encapsulate so much better what is needed to be successful today.
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