Will refer to a process for returning a customer to a state of satisfaction after a service or product has failed to live up to expectations?

Abstract

Are there economic benefits to improving customer satisfaction? Many firms that are frustrated in their efforts to improve quality and customer satisfaction are beginning to question the link between customer satisfaction and economic returns. The authors investigate the nature and strength of this link. They discuss how expectations, quality, and price should affect customer satisfaction and why customer satisfaction, in turn, should affect profitability; this results in a set of hypotheses that are tested using a national customer satisfaction index and traditional accounting measures of economic returns, such as return on investment. The findings support a positive impact of quality on customer satisfaction, and, in turn, profitability. The authors demonstrate the economic benefits of increasing customer satisfaction using both an empirical forecast and a new analytical model. In addition, they discuss why increasing market share actually might lead to lower customer satisfaction and provide preliminary empirical support for this hypothesis. Finally, two new findings emerge: First, the market's expectations of the quality of a firm's output positively affects customers' overall satisfaction with the firm; and second, these expectations are largely rational, albeit with a small adaptive component.

Journal Information

The Journal of Marketing (JM) develops and disseminates knowledge about real-world marketing questions relevant to scholars, educators, managers, consumers, policy makers and other societal stakeholders. It is the premier outlet for substantive research in marketing. Since its founding in 1936, JM has played a significant role in shaping the content and boundaries of the marketing discipline?

Publisher Information

Sara Miller McCune founded SAGE Publishing in 1965 to support the dissemination of usable knowledge and educate a global community. SAGE is a leading international provider of innovative, high-quality content publishing more than 900 journals and over 800 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. A growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. SAGE remains majority owned by our founder and after her lifetime will become owned by a charitable trust that secures the company’s continued independence. Principal offices are located in Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC and Melbourne. www.sagepublishing.com

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By definition, customer expectations are any set of behaviors or actions that individuals anticipate when interacting with a company. Historically, customers have expected basics like quality service and fair pricing — but modern customers have much higher expectations, such as proactive service, personalized interactions, and connected experiences across digital channels.

To better understand how customer expectations are changing, Salesforce Research surveyed 15,600 consumers and business buyers globally. In this research, “customers” is an aggregate of both consumer and business buyer responses. These findings, published in the fourth edition of the “State of the Connected Customer” report, give an in-depth look at:

• The factors influencing customers’ expectations
• The emerging technologies influencing the future of customer experience
• The reasons brand trust is increasingly important and how companies can foster it

For starters, the research found that 80% of customers now consider the experience a company provides to be as important as its products and services.

As disruptive companies leverage breakthroughs in cloud, mobile, social, and artificial intelligence technology to deliver personalized, valuable, and immediate experiences, customers have more choices than ever. As a result, they grow to expect this superior experience from any business they engage with.

66%

of customers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations

Source: "State of the Connected Customer," October 2020.

The research shows that understanding customers’ needs — and exceeding their expectations — are becoming table stakes for businesses to compete. Here are four expectations that are changing the game for companies.

• 76% of customers expect consistent interactions across departments, yet 54% say it generally feels like sales, service, and marketing teams don’t share information
• 74% of customers have used multiple channels to start and complete a transaction

• 52% of customers expect offers to always be personalized — up from 49% in 2019
• 66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations, yet 66% say they’re generally treated like numbers

• 88% of customers expect companies to accelerate digital initiatives due to COVID-19
• 69% of customers believe companies should offer new ways to get existing products and services in the wake of the pandemic, and 54% believe they should offer entirely new products and services

• Only 48% of customers say they generally trust companies
• Only 27% of consumers completely understand how companies use their personal information, and 86% want more transparency
• 61% of consumers feel like they’ve lost control over how their personal information is used — up from 46% in 2019

Read more about customer trust.

In this era of exponentially disruptive technological change, products and services that are cutting edge one day are outdated the next. In this context, the experience a company offers is increasingly its differentiator. But the scope of customer experience is changing, too. To win hearts and wallets, companies must not only deliver amazing marketing, sales, ecommerce, and service interactions, but also prove that they have the customers’ best interests in mind.

Customers expect a lot from companies, and their standards are being elevated as they interact with various sectors. The result is that businesses must look beyond their own industry to understand the benchmarks they are being evaluated against.

62%

of customers say their experiences with one industry influence their expectations of others

Source: "State of the Connected Customer," October 2020.

Customers’ expectations for empathetic, personalized, and digital-first engagement don’t stop when they go to work. Much like consumers, business buyers see a gap between the standards that have been set and the reality they experience.

Put simply, it pays to provide great customer experiences. In fact, 91% of those polled say they're more likely to make a repeat purchase after a positive experience, and 71% say they’ve made a purchase decision based on experience quality.

What is customer recovery procedure?

Which step in the service recovery process allows the service provider to find out if a recovery effort is successful?

What are the 4 basic steps to customer service recovery?

What is mean by customer satisfaction explain the service recovery?