Page 81 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Customer Relationship Management

Notes are ahead of perceptions. In other words, customers generally can find cause for dissatisfaction.
You might think that this would encourage companies to attempt to manage customer expectation
down to levels that can be delivered. However, competitors may well be improving their
performance in an attempt to meet customer expectations. If your strategy is to manage
expectations down, you may well lose customers to the better performing company. This is
particularly so if you fail to meet customer expectations on important attributes.
Customers have expectations of many attributes, for example product quality, service
responsiveness, price stability, and the physical appearance of your people and vehicles. These
are unlikely to be equally important. It is important to meet customer expectations on attributes
that are important to the customer. Online Customers, for example, look for rapid and accurate
order fulfilment good price, high levels of customer service and website functionality. Dell
Computers believes that Customer retention is the outcome of their performance against three
variables: order fulfilment on time, in full, no error, product performance and after sales service.
The comments in parentheses are the metrics that Dell uses. Figure 4.1 identifies a number of
Priorities for Improvement (PFIs) for a restaurant company. The PFIs are the attributes where
customer satisfaction scores are low, but the attributes are important to customers. In the example
the PFIs are food quality and toilet cleanliness. There would be no advantage in investing in
speedier service or more helpful staff.

Figure 4.1: Using Customer Satisfaction and Importance Data to Identify

Source: https://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=
677&q=crm&oq
Priorities for Improvement

Kano has developed a product quality model that distinguishes between three forms of quality.
Basic qualities are those that the customer routinely expects in the product. These expectations
are often unexpressed until the product fails. For example, a car’s engine should start first time
and the sunroof should not leak. The second form is linear quality. These are attributes of which
the customer wants more or less; for example, more comfort better fuel economy and reduced
noise levels. Marketing research can usually identify these requirements. Better performance on
these attributes generates better customer satisfaction. The third form is attractive quality.
These are attributes that surprise, delight and excite customers. They are answers to latent,
unarticulated needs and are often difficult to identify in marketing research. As shown in Figure
4.2, Kano’s analysis suggests that customers can be delighted in two ways: by enhancing linear
qualities beyond expectations and by creating innovative attractive qualities.

76 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY