Measuring Customer Satisfaction

Introduction

The basis of every business should be the customer. Any organization looking for profit, and that it continues anchored in those days so far in which the client was not taken into account, has the days counted but is that it has already disappeared. Also you can add to this the contribution that the XXI century has made the corporate world is to strengthen the relationship growing organization - customer. The important thing is no longer attract new customers, but keep satisfied those companies or customers that already are. Customer satisfaction matters. It matters not only to the customer, but even more so to the business because it directly impacts a company's bottom line profits. Furthermore, it is one of the most important components of a company's positive brand image. (Cvent, 2010).

Ideas like "the customer does not know what they want" or "the customer is always right" are disappearing from the current business mindset to follow the fundamental goal of marketing: Achieving total customer satisfaction.

In the globalized and competitive world that we live today, where the customer is king, is essential to ensure that our customers are satisfied. Until the last industrial revolution caused by information technology, new materials and communications; companies developed their activity in a stable environment, where customers were rather passive as there is more demand than supply in the market. Product cycles were long and competitiveness much lower than today. Now technological advancement has enabled the super-production of goods and market globalization. The client takes advantage of all the above and no doubt that in addition to being the king of the market, sometimes becomes capricious and vicious. We integrate customer satisfaction within our business strategy and we must learn to manage and measure this satisfaction.

An effective customer satisfaction measurement system results in reliable information about customer ratings of specific product and service features and about the relationship between these ratings and the customer’s likely future market behavior.

Customer satisfaction measures may include product attributes such as product quality, product performance, usability, and maintainability; service attributes such as attitude, service time, on-time delivery, exception handling, accountability, and technical support; image attributes such as reliability and price; and overall satisfaction measures. (Evans 217-218).

The customer is who decide what product you want to buy, when you want to buy and how much time they are willing to wait until they are served. Customer satisfaction is the most important part of business strategy as it provides outcomes as: repetitive buying, cross buying, word to mouth advertising, cost reduction and insensitivity to price increases.

Requirements for satisfaction are not only unique to each individual customer, they can be extremely difficult to quantify, even on a personal level. However, if you are able to set standards for employee conduct where interactions with customers are concerned (both from a point-of-sale and a customer service perspective) then you can certainly implement procedures and guidelines to ensure customer satisfaction and measure their success. You can start by going to the source. (Simpson)

1. Survey Customers - You can provide surveys in several ways (through mail, email, or over the phone) and in order to get the best information, you should allow customers to answer questions on a weighted scale. You may also want to survey repeat customers to see how their experience changes over time.

2. Understand Expectations - If you know what your customers expect from you, it logically follows that you will be better able to offer them an enjoyable experience.

...