1.

Look back on your own experiences as a customer and identify situations when little things
have made a difference in your buying decision. Think, for example, of places you have
stopped doing business with. What little things pushed you out of the zone of indifference
into the dissatisfied range? Be as specific as possible and remember that often dissatisfaction
comes from a series of truly small, almost insignificant turnoffs.

Being a customer, I believe that little things and aspects matters a lot in life. If different
little things are not handled carefully bring a significant indifference in customers buying
decision (Bonomo, 2002). In this regard, I remember a hotel, where I used to go with my
family on occasions or at the time of social gatherings for lunch or dinner. Whenever we
used to go there on Sundays, the waiting time is always not less than 30 minutes. The
food and family-kind of environment offered was good, as well as their service, therefore
it was not an issue for us.
As time passed, we all come to notice a decrease in the quality of food offered over there
and in service also. We also found the new servers in the restaurant who were not as
friendly as previous one were. The manager was also new and appeared overpowered.
We come to find that the restaurant was now in the hands of new management and this
was the reason of its quality decrease. The change in food quality, servers attitude, hotel
management etc. brought a difference in our buying decision and we got dissatisfied with
it.

2. Describe in your own words the three categories of customer turnoffs. Give five specific
examples of each.
The three main categories of customer turnoffs are as follows:
Value turnoffs:
The most fundamental turnoff for a customer like me is the feeling that what type of value
you is getting for what you are paying. Value pertains to quality related to price paid. It could
also be understood in regard to above discussed situation (Timm, 2008). For me example of
value turnoffs in regard the above discussed situation is:
Poor amenities in comparison to what was committed.
The quality of food got deteriorated with new management.
Prices were also increased for low quality food.
It fails to meet our expectations of a family hotel.
Services are not as it was in past.
System turnoffs:
It focuses on the how, that means how the place is being managed or operated. In other
words, it refers to process, procedure, or policy used to deliver the product or service to the
customer. Systems are the means through which, companies get the value to their customers
(Lovelock, 2010). Example of this could also be understood with above discussed example of
hotel where I and my family used to go. System turnoff regarding that hotel is as follows:
The restaurant environment was not so friendly now.
The staffs were so busy and their service was very slow.
The staffs of hotel were so busy that they dont have time to maintain hygiene and
cleanliness as the bathroom was a mess.
With new management, service suffered and became less effective as they took lot of
time to serve an order.
No one was there to take customer feedback before leaving as done from previous
manager.
People Turnoffs:
People turnoff concentrates on who. It means who is delivering the system. Usually
people turnoffs evolve from underlying communication problems. Employees who are not able
to communicate effectively (verbally or non-verbally), can usually irritate a customer (Goodman,
2009). Example of people turnoffs in the concern of above discussed hotel dissatisfaction
situation are:
Hotel service staff was unfriendly.
Servers were not even having correct information about the availability of orders.
The hotel manager was overpowered and stressed.
The level of communication followed was quite poor.
Employees were busy in chatting on their own instead of taking care of customers.


3. Among the most important determinants of customer satisfaction is the availability of
feedback. We gain clearer insight into what customers want and dont want by systematically
processing all types of feedback. Describe five ways todays organizations and individuals can
sharpen their insights with useful feedback.
With increasing competition, it has become critical for firms to satisfy their customers
through serving what is promised and anticipated along with an effective customer service.
Today, if a customer finds poor customer service, he would get dissatisfied from it. So, it has
become vital nowadays for firms to provide an effective customer service and it could be done
only, with a key determinant of customer satisfaction that is availability of feedback. Feedback
and there systematic processing provides a clear insight regarding what a firms customers want
and dont want (Lovelock, 2010).
Following are the five most important ways through which todays firms and their
employees can sharpen their insight with useful feedback:
First way in this concern is to keep in constant communication with target customers.
Make use of different advanced interactive options to receive regular feedbacks (Timm,
2008).
Be aware with the altering demographics like baby boomers, aging population etc.
Make use of electronic and advanced forms of marketing like e-commerce, use of social
networking sites etc (Bonomo, 2002).
Identify the aspects that will remain constant that are referred as fair value.
There are several aspects or value related to a product or service that would not change in
the present world of consumerism. Individuals will always want more value for their money.
Consumers always want value, quality, fairness that would always remain as it is now. In modern
era, an aspect emerged in the minds of consumers is green or something that concentrates on
community (Goodman, 2009). All these aspects if kept in mind along with regular feedbacks
through different tools and techniques would help a firm in making an effective use of its
customer feedbacks.