- Meaning of Customer Delight.
- Customer Delight Curve.
- Principles of Customer Delight.
- Tools for Keeping Consumer Delighted.
- Customer Satisfaction and Customer Delight.
What is Customer Delight ?
Meaning of Customer Delight :
A customer feels delighted when he receives more than what he has expected. It is a situation where the products and services offered to a customer not just satisfy his needs and wants, but also provide an unanticipated value. For example, when a customer visits a grocery store and finds all he products he/she was willing to buy, then he/she not just feels delighted but also finds the shopping experience faster and convenient from his/her earlier experiences.
Customer delight plays a very important role in achieving success. It is considered as an outcome of offering products or services ta customers that goes beyond their expectations.
A company can exceed the expectation level of customers only when it provides quality products or services, which make the customers feel delighted. If the customer is dissatisfied by the product or service offered to him then the company fails to delight the customer, because before making a customer feel delighted, it is essential to make him satisfied. Delighted customers arc also crucial for the company in order to compete with the competitors.
Customer Delight Curve :
Customer delight curve consists of three zones, namely, zone of pain, zone of mere satisfaction, and zone of delight. When an organization applies some efforts to satisfy its customers, then the customers start moving from the zone of dissatisfaction to the zone of merely satisfaction and finally lo the zone of delight.
Principles of Customer Delight :
There are eight principles of customer delight which are mentioned below :
1) Timeliness :
In this competitive scenario, speed is considered as An important factor to Successfully operate a business. If a company fails to satisfy its customers and exploit the opportunity at the right time, then the competitors may take advantage of this prospect and can acquire customers by serving them faster and better.
2) Always Listen To Your Customers :
When entrepreneurs start their business they must analyze the needs and wants of the customers before developing products. The entrepreneurs must test their products with real customers, listen to their feedback and then design their products effectively. Customers should be served according to their needs and wants, so company must devotedly listen to the feedback provided by their customers and build a product or service that contain various features that satisfy needs of customer and makes them feel delighted Therefore, the company must have a "Feedback" link on their websites, so that the views and insights of customer can reach to the top level management.
3) Give Them What They Need (Not Always What They Want) :
Henry Ford explained and claimed that, "If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses." It explains that customer feedback is very essential but while designing a product a company must not only focus on the needs of the customer but they must also apply their own plans and approaches while making the product more feasible and suitable. There are various products available in the market, without which, lives of customers would have been difficult. But, before the invention of such products people did not even see their need.
4) Reward Customers with Unexpected Surprises :
Nowadays, many companies are providing extra benefits with the product or services they offer to customers in order their competitors. Uber and Lyft are examples of such companies. Customers of these types of companies know about the range of unexpected rewards they receive every time they avail heir services. These companies know the technique of delighting their customers.
5) Give Customers A Point of Contact :
Every company should have a department or a person to handle the issues and grievances of the customers. A strong relationship is established between those company and a customer when it is known that there is a point of contact.
6) Provide Space to Customers :
Sufficient space and privacy should be given to the customers For example, companies should not send excessive mails or messages to their customers because this may make customers furious and angry. So, companies should keep one thing in their mind that sometime moving one step backward is more beneficial than taking an unnecessary step ahead.
7) Have Policies, But Always Be Flexible :
A range of policies should be designed by he company to handle certain customer issues. Since every issue is not simple and similar, the company should be flexible enough while applying policies so as to resolve the issues of customers.
8) Tell Your Customers How You WI Help Them:
Usually, a customer calls the company's customer support for getting a solution lo an issue. But, it never explains about the reason behind the occurrence of such an issue and neither the procedure which has been used to solve to a problem. As a result. customer feels dissatisfied and unknown about the facts related to the product. Therefore, a company must maintain transparency in its relationship with the customers and explain them the steps ii is undertaking lo solve their problems.
Tools for Keeping Consumer Delighted :
Companies must formulate and implement tools for the purpose of delighting the customers. The tools are explained below :
1) Complaint and Suggestion Systems :
A system can be created by the company, with the help of which the customers can analyze a product and then give the feedback about the same. Feedback can be both positive as well as negative. The companies should also welcome suggestions from the customers, which may lead to better customer service.
2) Customer Satisfaction Surveys :
Companies should conduct surveys for evaluating the standard and quality of their product or services. The companies adopt various techniques for doing surveys such as questionnaires, face to face interviews, direct calling, e-mails, etc.
3) Ghost Shopping:
Ghost shopping refers to a concept in which some hired purchasers art sent lo stores by the management in order to observe whether the staff members are dedicated towards customer service or not Such shoppers arc known as ghost shoppers. They help the company to know the level of customer service actually being provided, which in turn can help in improving the service.
4) Lost Customer Analysis :
When the customers" shift to some other company. he company, should find out the appropriate reason behind losing them. It is essential for a company to conduct an analysis of both satisfied and dissatisfied customers consistently.
Customer Satisfaction and Customer Delight :
Customer Satisfaction and Customer Delight are different terms having different meaning. A customer feels satisfied when bis expectations regarding the product are met. Whereas, a customer is said lo be delighted when a product exceeds his expectations.
The features of a product or service are the central focus of customers. n the product function, the features define a product, therefore it is essential for a manager to deliver such products or services. For example, the availability of petroleum is a must, hygiene of a washroom satisfies, and getting exemption from a custom duly is n delight.
According to Kano, the product involves various features by which customer is satisfied and dissatisfied such as delivery, availability, etc.
According to Oliver, here are two theories namely, psychological consumer behavior and behavioral consumption. Psychological theory explains the positive and negative emotions of a consumer, which is an amalgamation of joy and surprise attributes and is denoted as a delight. Whereas, behavioral theory states hat the performance and satisfaction level of consumers. Hence it can be said that, the chances of being loyal towards a company, are more for a delighted customer than that of o customer who is merely satisfied.