16 Consumer satisfaction and consumer delight

Kulbhushan Chandel

1. Learning outcome

After completing this lesson the student will be able to:

Define the concepts of consumer satisfaction and consumer delight
Understand the importance of consumer satisfaction.
Explain the ingredient for consumer satisfaction and delight
Define principles of consumer satisfaction.
Explain the customer retention and consumer delight.
Explain the common perception gaps.

2. Introduction

In today‟s competitive environment, the business houses are facing the toughest competition. The economic growth system, success, survival and growth of firms need accurate knowledge about the consumers, their needs, behaviours regarding the products and services. This competitive world has made the companies to essentially understand the consumers‟ needs and requirements. But the company‟s success majorly depends upon the level of consumer satisfaction achieved by the company which totally depends upon the customer relationships. As stated by the CEO of Cisco System, John Chambers that the company can easily achieve the customer satisfaction by making customers the centre of the culture of the company. Consumer satisfaction helps the company to earn profits and also helps in social and economic justification which is necessary for the growth and survival of the company. The profitable satisfaction of the consumer needs the mixture and the proper organization of all the business activities which can be achieved by the consumer oriented plans and strategies. The future success of the company can also be assured by providing the right product with right promotion at right time, right place and right price to the consumer. The needs of the various consumers varies from one consumer to another and also this variation is due to different cultures, religions, languages, customs, lifestyles, etc. If the every business unit satisfies their customers then their business benefits are enormous. Customer service is not an ordeal that a company has to endure but an opportunity that can produce huge benefits for the organisation. To be market-led companies must be customer driven. The modern philosophy of marketing emphasizes the relationship marketing approach as an effective means for achieving marketing goals in a highly competitive environment. The focus on creation, growth and retaining of customers has become so strong that customer relationship management has almost become synonymous with the marketing management. Customer Relationship Management focuses totally on the customers and the organisation‟s entire gamut of functions related to the value creation and value delivery. It is concerned with the development of the brand loyalty and customer loyalty to the highest possible level and to maintain the long term customer relationship.

3. Meaning of consumer

A consumer is any person who receives a product which can either be a good or service from an organisation and consumes it. A consumer is the most important person for the company. The company is totally dependent on the consumer. The consumer is a part of the company without whom the company cannot work. The company is doing favour to consumer by serving him and moreover the consumer is providing an opportunity to the company by doing so.

The consumers can be of two types:

Internal Consumers: Internal consumers like colleagues, supervisors, managers, or staff working in other departments of the organisation.
External Consumers: External consumer is the most important person for the company. The company is totally dependent on the external consumers. It is the job of the company to ensure that the consumer is provided with the product needed by him.

4. Consumer satisfaction

Consumer satisfaction refers to the extent to which consumer are happy with the products and services provided by any business organization. In general way „satisfaction‟ means a person‟s feelings of pleasure or displeasure resulting from comparing a product‟s outcome and perceived performance in relation to his or her expectation and if performance and outcome of any product becomes short of his/her expectations then consumer is dissatisfied. In other words, customer satisfaction is the extent to which the product‟s perceived performance matches the expectations, the customer is satisfied. If it exceeds the expectations, the customer is highly satisfied or delighted. Successful marketing companies go out of the way to keep their customers satisfied or delighted. They strive to match the customer expectations with the company‟s performance. Some companies aim to delight customers by promising only what they can deliver, then delivering more than they promise. Marketers use the Customer Satisfaction Index (CSI) to track satisfaction levels.

4.1 Definition of consumer satisfaction:

Consumer satisfaction is the perception of the consumer which the vendor achieves by meeting the consumer‟s expectations fully, efficiently and promptly. It is the summary of the opinion of the consumers about the vendors. For different analysis, consumer has to choose a vendor who provides the consumer value for the money and by providing the products with which the consumer is comfortable and is satisfied. Today‟s era is consumer oriented and every firm not only tries to attract its customers and also to satisfy the consumer which is the ultimate goal of the company. As every company is established with the motive of earning profits and the profits can be earned with achieving consumer satisfaction. If the company increases the consumer satisfaction by decreasing its product price or increase its services, the result would be lower profits.

Example: Consumer Satisfaction towards Cadbury‟s chocolate. The Cadbury has taken the opportunity to offer us a broader view of chocolate category. The Cadbury India‟s No. 1 is able to share with their market insight based upon unparalleled breath of chocolate experience. In this way Cadbury provide high level satisfaction with more value of their consumer‟s money.

4.2 Main ingredient of consumer satisfaction: The main ingredient of the consumer satisfaction is consistency. The consistency can be consumer consistency or, emotional consistency, or communication consistency.

5. Principles of consumer satisfaction

The general principles which would sharpen the ability of the person to satisfy the consumer and to retain him are explained below. Consumer satisfaction is the minimum goal which a company tries to achieve; the ultimate goal is the consumer retention.

5.1 Listen carefully to consumer: The first principle of consumer satisfaction is creating relationship with their consumer by listening to them carefully. Listening means not only to listen to words of consumer but also the ideas which they are trying to get across to you.

5.2 Respond quickly to consumer: Then, secondly the consumers should be given accurate response after listening to their views. Proper time frame should be given to consumers for discussing complete response.

5.3 Be patient when respond to consumer: Thirdly, the company should try to have patience whenever the company respond to consumer because consumers are the persons for whom the company is manufacturing the products. So every time explain everything in detail to consumer what you are doing.

5.4 A perfect product to consumer: Every consumer want defect free product and better quality product and services. So every firm need to design their product and services according to their consumers‟ demand.

5.5 Be a team player: Every firm must try to work like a team player with their consumer to improve their product services and demand.

6. Importance of consumer satisfaction:

Consumers are very important because satisfied consumer every time spend more money and refer more consumers and support businesses longer than unsatisfied consumer. These things help to increase more revenue for businesses. Consumer satisfaction is so powerful primarily because it enables companies to communicate directly with consumer about their needs – assuring that the quality standards which the company establishes that reflects the voice the consumer. There are following importance:

6.1 It helps to know their consumer intention for repurchase and loyalty: Consumer satisfaction helps to every firm to know about their willingness to repurchase their product and loyalty towards company product rather than others.

6.2 It’s a point of differentiation: In competitive business environment every firm compete for consumers, their satisfaction which is seen as a key differentiator. In this cut throat environment which business succeeds is the one that make consumer satisfaction a key element of their business strategy.

6.3 Reduce bad word of mouth: It helps to eliminate bad word of mouth because when company provides a better quality product rather than other then it eliminates every bad thing.

6.4 It’s not a costlier concept: Consumer satisfaction is not a costlier concept because help to retain their existing consumers. When company creates new consumer then cost is six or seven time more than retaining existing consumer.

7. Common Perception Gaps

Perception gaps are the difference between how the company and its customers view its products or services. The common gaps are the following:

The gap between what the company thinks the customer wants and what the customers actually want.

The gap between what the company thinks the customer has bought and what the customers perceive they have received.
The gap between the service qualities the company believes is being provided and what the customer perceives as being provided.
The gap between the customer‟s expectations of service quality and the service quality the company actually delivers.
The gap between the marketing promises and the company‟s actual delivery.
Knowing the gap in the business will help the marketers focus attention on the areas that matter most to the customers.

8. Customer Perceived Value

In present days, the consumers are more educated and aware and even they have more tools to verify the companies‟ claims and seek out the superior alternatives.

Example: Hewlett Packard has started to out space Dell in terms of customer-perceived value. Dell has gained success by providing low-priced computers, logistically efficient and proper after sale services. The company has mainly focused on providing the low-priced products to the consumers rather than on managing service and quality. In contrast, the Hewlett Packard is pursuing solutions based approach for the strengthening of the channel partner relationships.

Consumer perceived value is the difference between the prospective customer‟s evaluation of all the benefits and all costs of an offering and the perceived alternatives.

Total Customer Benefit: the total customer benefit is the perceived monetary value of the bundle of economic, functional and psychological benefits which the customers expect from the market offering.
Total Customer Cost: the total customer cost is the perceived bundle of costs customers expect to incur in evaluating, obtaining, using and disposing of the given market offering, including monetary, time, energy and psychological costs.

9. Factors affecting consumer satisfaction

Consumer‟s satisfaction is the outcome which is the result of product and performance of producer in comparison with the customer‟s level of expectations. The factors influencing the consumer satisfaction can be human factors and product factors. Consumer satisfaction is overall impression of consumer about the supplier and the products and services delivered by the supplier. Some of the factors which affect the consumer satisfaction are as follows:

Technological and engineering aspects of product and services.
Suppliers response about type and quality of product and services
Complaint management
Department of firms
Supplier ability to manage whole consumer life cycle.

10. Methods to measure consumer satisfaction:

There are varieties of methods which can be used by the experts for measuring consumer satisfaction. These can be classified into two groups, viz., direct methods and indirect methods. This can be measured by preparing questionnaire and getting the reviews of the customers. After the questionnaire filling by the customers, the company can get the true and accurate information regarding the satisfaction level of the consumers.

Direct method: Consumer feedback and Informal chat/ interview to market consumer sector are the direct methods of measuring the consumer satisfaction.
Indirect method: Measurement of changes in complaints by using transient changes and by measuring the changes in loyalty are the indirect methods of measuring customer satisfaction.

11. Consumer delight

Consumer delight is the superior experience of the consumers. When the company provides such a product which is much more than the expectations of the consumers, then this creates a positive emotional reaction by the consumer which is also known as WOW effect. The consumer delight helps in creating a competitive advantage as the consumer delight is directly affected by the sale and profitability of a company by distinguishing its brand, product and loyalty. The delighted customer can do a lot for the company. Consumer delight is a key to success. Customers will be delighted when what is provided is more than what is promised or expected. If what the company provides exceeds what is promised or expected then that will be sufficient to create delight. It may be only a small delight, a short delight or a fleeting delight, but it will be delight.

12.1 Definition:

Consumer delighted can be defined as: “The result of delivering a product or services that exceed consumer expectations”.

According to Tom Peters, “Customer satisfaction is no longer good enough to survive in today‟s competitive market. What is needed is customer delight.”

12.2 Need of Customer Delight

The main factor which needs to be considered is the perspective why the customer delight is needed. The delighted customers remain loyal to the company. They repeatedly buy the products of the company. Moreover a good word of mouth is provided by them. Delighted customers can increase the profits of the company to manifold. A new acquired customer cost about five times more than that of a delighted customer of the company.

Delighted Consumers are an asset: The delighted consumers have a positive impact and they also inform many other people to buy the company‟s products. Thus, they are a sound investment and many companies have understood their impacts.
Consumer services leads to consumer delight: Life without creativity is just like coca cola without the fizz. The tremendous advancements in the field of communication, transportation have made world a global village.
Consumer satisfaction research demonstrates the need for the continuous improvement: Consumer satisfaction is the critical strategic weapon for any type of organization. But if every business unit can move consumer from being simply satisfied to delighted, the business benefits are enormous. The consumer is anyone who receive a product either a good or a service from an organization.

EXAMPLE: Consumer Satisfaction towards Cadbury‟s chocolate. The Cadbury has taken the opportunity to offer us a broader view of chocolate category. The Cadbury India‟s no. 1 is able to share with their market insight based upon unparalleled breath of chocolate experience. In this way Cadbury provide high level satisfaction with more value of their consumer‟s money. Their satisfaction is the outcome that result from product and vender performance in comparison with his her level of expectations. The factors influencing the consumer satisfaction can be divided into two groups as “human “and” “product”.

12. Summary

Consumer delights creates a competitive advantages as it directly affect the sale and profitability of a company by distinguish its brand, product and loyalty. They are moving towards services and quality. They can do a lot in the favour of a company. It is not enough we satisfy the consumer, basically consumer delight have importance to manage the quality of product and assumption state. Their delight and satisfaction were not the same because delight to take pleasure in which satisfaction means how we agree the person that will purchase the product or not so, both give the different meaning. Including the meaning of consumers the product is having the common centre in the consumer mind. Product is centre target of the product function. Life without creativity is like coca cola without the fizz. The tremendous advances made in the field of communication, transportation have sunk the world we live in, into a small place. It is in fact referred to by many as a global village. Consumers are very important because satisfied consumer every time spend more money and refer more consumers and support businesses longer than unsatisfied consumer. These things help to increase more revenue for businesses. Consumer satisfaction is so powerful primarily because it enables companies to communicate directly with consumer about their needs – assuring that the quality standards which the company establishes that reflects the voice the consumer. A company would be wise to measure consumer satisfaction regularly because one key to consumer retention is consumer satisfaction. Because highly satisfied consumer generally stays loyal longer, buy more as the company introduces new products and upgrade existing products, talks favourably about the company and its products. Consumer satisfaction measurements involve the collection of the data that provides information about how satisfied or dissatisfied consumers are with a “scores.” The data can be used by organization to understand the reasons for the level of satisfaction that has been collected by company‟s market manager. This information analyzed in different ways to find out the exact level of satisfaction. Consumer satisfaction measurement is questionnaire –based research approach. Consumer‟s satisfaction is the outcome that result from product and vender performance in comparison with his her level of expectations. The factors influencing the consumer satisfaction can be divided into two groups as “human “and” “product”. Consumer satisfaction is overall impression of consumer about the supplier and the products and services delivered by the supplier. Consumer satisfaction measurement allows an organization to understand the issues or key drivers that cause satisfaction or dissatisfaction with a service experience. Their satisfaction measurement can help an organization understand what it can and cannot control. Customers will be delighted when what is provided is more than what is promised or expected. If what the company provides exceeds what is promised or expected. If what the company provides exceeds what it promised to provide, or what the customer expected the company to provide, that will be sufficient to create delight. It may be only a small delight, a short delight or a fleeting delight, but it will be delight.

Suggested Readings (Books and Websites)

Ghosh PK, Sales Management- Text and Cases, Himalaya Publishing House, 2010.
Jobber David and Lancester Geoff, Selling and Sales Management, Pearson Education, Sixth Edition.
McCarthy, Jerome E. (1964). Basic Marketing. A Managerial Approach. Homewood, IL: Irwin.
Needham, Dave (1996). Business for Higher Awards. Oxford, England: Heinemann.
Kotler, Philip (2012). Marketing Management. Pearson Education. Kotler, P. and Keller, K. (2006), Marketing and Management, Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA
McCarthy, Jerome E. (1975)”Basic Marketing: A Managerial Approach,” fifth edition, Richard D. Irwin