How to exceed customer expectations? Why is this necessary? You will find answers to these and other questions in the article. No matter how much you serve customers, anyway, someone will remain dissatisfied - the products, you, the service, the pre-sale service, or anything else. How to exceed customer expectations, find out below.
Bad recommendation
Few know how to exceed consumer expectations. So, you have served many clients, but someone was not satisfied. What does this mean from a marketing recommendation point of view? You are supposed to get at least one bad recommendation.
And the customers who were happy? If they got what they expected, they would not want to talk about it. Why, if everything was fine? This problem can be dealt with by growing loyal customers.
Three nuances
Every businessman wants to know how to exceed customer expectations. How to grow a loyal consumer? The first thing you can do is transcend anticipation. By time, cost or service. It is “or”, and not “and”: do not try to use all three parameters at the same time. Choose one that is more important to your business.
Exceed customer expectations in cost - organize activities so that your consumer pays less than expected. This technique can be used in businesses where the buyer in advance calculates what he has to pay for (for example, dentistry or car service).
Exceed customer expectations on time - always deliver or deliver faster than he expects. To do this, it is not necessary to turn employees into sprinters. Rather, the buyer needs to call the time “with a margin": to promise to deliver pizza in an hour and fulfill it in 45 minutes. much better than promising in 30 minutes. and bring through the same 45.
To exceed expectations in the service - this means to provide service an order of magnitude higher than the customer expected. For example, apply to a person who has reserved an economy-class taxi with a car class higher. Choose what suits you.
Contact points
Also here you need to be able to think through the contact points. These are any situations, places and interfaces in which the buyer (or potential consumer) comes into contact with the enterprise. We use retail for the sample. From the moment when a potential customer saw an advertisement or a signboard of a store, and before he leaves it and begins to use the purchase, he will contact the catalogs, the store, employees, price tags, security, delivery of goods, consultants and so on several dozen times .
At every step, something can leave a negative impression, go wrong. And it is very useful to pre-estimate for the buyer, at what point in the relationship what can happen, what your customer expects at each stage and what he actually receives.
Here you need to try to reduce the gap between the desired and received feeling at each step of the service.
Feedback
How to listen to the response? Unfortunately, customer dissatisfaction cannot be avoided completely. But if the consumer will still complain, do everything possible so that he first complains to you.
Give the grouchy customer the opportunity to make demands quickly and easily. Then he will have less temptation to report the problem to friends, acquaintances and relatives.
Do you want to work out the procedure for obtaining returns in your business? Use in practice the very useful book by Zolina Elena and Mann Igor “Feedback. Get feedback! ” It describes many ways to get returns from a consumer audience.
Bonus
To exceed what is expected is very important, as it greatly enhances the recommendations. You need to give more than you promised. Give a variety of values attached - something that customers do not expect. Some, for example, after the conclusion of the transaction give movie tickets. This, you see, customers do not expect absolutely.
But this is such an attractive bonus that melts the ice between the buyer and the seller and brings them very close. Such an emotional present.
You can specifically not include anything in the contract and present it as a bonus - additional services that you can provide. You can also offer a different professional service by advertising your partners.
Doubt
The biggest danger that the consumer will begin to doubt and change his mind takes place in the first 24 hours. During this time, you need to convey to him a confirmation of the loyalty of his choice. To make the buyer very satisfied, you need to give him as much material as possible.
What can be given besides the contract? You can provide customer reviews, company resumes, memos, step-by-step guidance, other materials, something that he can show to his partner, wife, he will study and make sure that he invested in something materialized.
After all, how are cellular services implemented? In fact, this is a service, and a tiny SIM card is sold, which is only inserted into a smartphone. And what are the parameters of the box for SIM cards? There are such impressive packages that in comparison with a SIM card they are 100 times larger. This is an example of how a service that cannot be touched can be packaged in a box so that it is of great value to the buyer.
Extra strokes
You can also send your customers letters of support both by e-mail and regular mail. The first option does not cost anything, but this way you reinforce the confidence of customers in the right choice. The content posted in these messages may be identical to the one you give to your customers.
Also, additional calls to the buyer will greatly affect the positive attitude towards you, through which you will remind you what to do and how. Your secretary or assistant can call.
The final extra touch is a personal “thank you” in addition to the written one. This word is very simple to say, but it is magical.
Advantages of the Approach
What does the phrase “exceed expectations” mean? Its synonyms are amazing - "plug in your belt", "wipe your nose", "differ like the sky from the earth", "take the palm off," "be a head taller", "get ahead" and so on. You can easily give odds to expectations. Let it sound categorically, but we are in a world of mediocrity. Therefore, standing out is not so difficult. However, what prospects will open before you!
When you delight and surprise your customers, you give them positive emotions. This helps to build a long-term relationship, increases the possibility of re-sales and leads to an increase in CLV (customer lifetime value). And CLV is one of the most important factors for business.
According to RJMetrics tests of 2015, the most successful eCommerce enterprises three years after the first steps of the project receive most of their profit from secondary purchases. Loyal customers are a strategic source for development for them.
A client with a positive experience of cooperation with the company:
- More often makes secondary purchases.
- Spends more (above the average bill).
- Recommends you to friends and acquaintances, reducing your costs of attracting customers.
Each of these indicators is valuable in itself. And even in a bunch - even more so.