A recent study in Holland found that half of the 'faulty' electronic products that were returned to retailers weren't actually faulty at all. The consumer simply could not figure out how to use their new electronic device and quickly assumed it was broken.
Even worse still, an American research suggested that 10% of consumers purposely damage or sometimes even destroy such devices out of pure frustration. In one particular study, they found a restaurant manager can thrown his laptop into the deep fryer, resulting in a ruined laptop and deep fryer.
It's not just high tech gadgets which causes such rage. The BBC states that around 90 percent of people feel frustrated or angry after speaking with someone at a call centre. After moving house last year, I feel their pain as it took nine phone calls over 2 days resulting in 167 minutes on the phone just to get my phone switched over to the new address.
What amazes me even more is that companies spend so much on advertising a product or service and very little on advertising its ease of use. Ultimately, if a consumer has had a terrible experience with a particular product or service, chances are, no amount of advertising could persuade them to use that particular brand again.
Instead, companies need to focus more on improving the consumers' experience. This involves things like understanding and meeting the customers' expectations and the quality of their interactions across all products and/or services of that company.
In order to understand the expectations, we must first need to know what customers want to do and how they would like to be treated. As each individual is different, these expectations are going to be entirely different; depending on the context of the situation. A customer that calls in for support may have different needs to one that looks online at the website for a product. Customer expectations will vary as they will be driven by word-of-mouth, advertising and the customers own personal experiences.
To make this even more difficult, organisations now offer many ways for customers to interact with them. Email, websites, call centres and local branches all need to give consistent information, appropriate to the constraints of that medium. Different technologies persuade people in different ways, and some channels are more suited for some interactions than others.
If a company can't provide an adequate customer experience, angry customers, an eroding brand and lost revenue are sure to be the result. On the flipside, if an organisation or company can get its customer experience right, the benefits will include an increase in customer satisfaction, which leads to more sales. A differentiation in product/service will create a valuable competitive advantage, and improved brand perception will result in an increase in market share.
Even worse still, an American research suggested that 10% of consumers purposely damage or sometimes even destroy such devices out of pure frustration. In one particular study, they found a restaurant manager can thrown his laptop into the deep fryer, resulting in a ruined laptop and deep fryer.
It's not just high tech gadgets which causes such rage. The BBC states that around 90 percent of people feel frustrated or angry after speaking with someone at a call centre. After moving house last year, I feel their pain as it took nine phone calls over 2 days resulting in 167 minutes on the phone just to get my phone switched over to the new address.
What amazes me even more is that companies spend so much on advertising a product or service and very little on advertising its ease of use. Ultimately, if a consumer has had a terrible experience with a particular product or service, chances are, no amount of advertising could persuade them to use that particular brand again.
Instead, companies need to focus more on improving the consumers' experience. This involves things like understanding and meeting the customers' expectations and the quality of their interactions across all products and/or services of that company.
In order to understand the expectations, we must first need to know what customers want to do and how they would like to be treated. As each individual is different, these expectations are going to be entirely different; depending on the context of the situation. A customer that calls in for support may have different needs to one that looks online at the website for a product. Customer expectations will vary as they will be driven by word-of-mouth, advertising and the customers own personal experiences.
To make this even more difficult, organisations now offer many ways for customers to interact with them. Email, websites, call centres and local branches all need to give consistent information, appropriate to the constraints of that medium. Different technologies persuade people in different ways, and some channels are more suited for some interactions than others.
If a company can't provide an adequate customer experience, angry customers, an eroding brand and lost revenue are sure to be the result. On the flipside, if an organisation or company can get its customer experience right, the benefits will include an increase in customer satisfaction, which leads to more sales. A differentiation in product/service will create a valuable competitive advantage, and improved brand perception will result in an increase in market share.
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