Customer satisfaction measurement

Résumé du document

It is well established that satisfied customers are key to long-term business success. Companies that have a more satisfied customer base also experiences higher economic returns. High consumer satisfaction leads to greater customer loyalty which, in turn, leads to future revenue. Organizations having superior product and service quality have been found to be market leaders in terms of sales and long-term customer loyalty and retention. Because of this, organizations competing in similar market niches are compelled to assess the quality of the products and services they provide in order to attract and retain their customers. Customers expectations are derived from their own accumulation of contacts with products and services provided to them in all walks of life. From such contacts customers develop a generalized set of expectations or standards, based on their day-to-day history as customers. It is from the accumulation of these experiences that customers establish personal standards and use them to gauge service quality. Thus, for an organization to thrive, it must keep pace with its customers changing needs and succeed in satisfying them. Putting customers first will ensure that companies meet and anticipate their clients demands and expectations. Today's customers expect excellent service. If they sense that companies are not putting them first, they will feel disappointed. Thus, thorough consideration must be given to the fact that customers will not only asses a company's performance against that of its competitors, but they will also judge a company against what it promised to deliver, and what they believe to be acceptable standards.

Extraits

[...] and Schneider, U. (2000), “Measuring customer satisfaction: why, what, and Total Quality Management, Vol No pp. 883- Mittal, V., Kumar, P. and Tsiros, M. (1999), “Attribute-level performance, satisfaction, and behavioural intentions over time: a consumption-system approach”, Journal of Marketing, Vol No pp. 88- Spreng, R. and Chiou, J. (2000), cross-cultural assessment of the satisfaction formation process”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol Nos pp. 829- Yüksel, A., Rimmington, M. (1998), "Customer-satisfaction measurement", Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol No.6, pp.60-7. [...]

[...] Performance-only approach This method measures service features related to transitional specific service satisfaction (both technical and functional). One such performance approach method reported in the literature is the Customer Satisfaction Survey (Gilbert et al., 1997; Nicholls et al., 1998). The instrument measures customers' satisfaction immediately following a service episode. It includes technical and functional transition specific features, as well as service quality and service satisfaction measures. It consists of two measures that were empirically derived through factor analysis applications: satisfaction with personal service (SatPers) and satisfaction with the service setting (SatSett). [...]

[...] Knowing that is the easy bit. The hard bit is finding out just what your customers think, and the even harder part is trying to find out how their opinions match those of competitors' customers. To make the problem even tougher, managers also have to be aware that customers tend to have different expectations for different experiences. For instance, they might have a different expectation of having a Starbuck's coffee in a retail store than buying one at a gas station. [...]

[...] Indeed, the measurement of consumer behaviour and customer satisfaction is more exploratory in its development rather than a precise, exact science. Yet the importance of measurement of customer service is well-established in marketing and management literature. What is needed is a simple, fast and accurate way of assessing service satisfaction in a standardized manner both within and across industries that meets the needs of managers of the business units they control. G. Ronald Gilbert and Cleopatra Veloutsou say: use of measures that can be validly applied in a timely manner across stores representing a variety of industries could facilitate the improvement of a conglomerate of service outlets in commonly shared business locations such as neighbourhood shopping centers, business associations, and the like.” Methods and Techniques used in the Measurement of Customer Satisfaction 10 REFERENCES 1. [...]

[...] OBJECTIVES Customers' requirements (importance ratings) Customer satisfaction (satisfaction ratings) Comparisons with other organisations PFIs (priorities for improvements) Customer satisfaction index A trackable measure of satisfaction The internal perspective There are a number of generic objectives that can be applied to virtually any CSM project. The only thing needed is to decide which are appropriate for a particular type of organisation. Methods and Techniques used in the Measurement of Customer Satisfaction 6 METHODS FOR CONSUMER SATISFACTION MEASUREMENT The importance of measurement of customer service is well established in marketing and management literature. Yet, there is no universally accepted method or measurement scale that exists. [...]