INTRODUCTION

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Customer satisfaction, a business term, is a measure of how products and services

supplied by a company meet or surpass customer expectation. It is seen as a key
performance indicator within business and is part of the four perspectives of a Balanced
Scorecard.

In a competitive marketplace where businesses compete for customers, customer

satisfaction is seen as a key differentiator and increasingly has become a key element of
business strategy.

MEASURING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Organizations are increasingly interested in retaining existing customers while targeting

non-customers; measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful
the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace.

Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation
of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to
product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and
physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and
recommend rate. These ten domains of satisfaction include: Quality, Value, Timeliness,
Efficiency, Ease of Access, Environment, Inter-departmental Teamwork, Front line
Service Behaviors, Commitment to the Customer and Innovation. The customer is asked
to evaluate each statement and in term of their perception and expectation of performance
of the organization being measured.

METHODOLOGIES

The Kano model is a theory of product development and customer satisfaction developed
in the 1980s by Professor Noriaki Kano that classifies customer preferences into five

1
categories: Attractive, One-Dimensional, Must-Be, Indifferent, Reverse. The Kano model
offers some insight into the product attributes which are perceived to be important to
customers. Kano also produced a methodology for mapping consumer responses to
questionnaires onto his model.

SERVQUAL or RATER is a service-quality framework that has been incorporated into

customer-satisfaction surveys (e.g., the revised Norwegian Customer Satisfaction
Barometer to indicate the gap between customer expectations and experience.

IMPROVING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

TICSS enables organizations to focus their attention on delivering excellence in the

management of customer service, whilst at the same time providing recognition of
success through a 3rd Party registration scheme. TICSS focuses an organization’s
attention on delivering increased customer satisfaction by helping the organization
through a Service Quality Model.

TICSS Service Quality Model uses the 5 P's - Policy, Processes, People, Premises,
Product/Services, as well as performance measurement.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION RESEARCH

Customer satisfaction research is that area of marketing research which focuses on

customers' perceptions with their shopping or purchase..

TYPES OF RESEARCH

DESCRIPTIVE OR DOCUMENTARY RESEARCH

Many customer satisfaction studies are intentionally or unintentionally only "descriptive"

in nature because they simply provide a snapshot in time of customer attitudes.

2
INFERENTIAL OR MODELS-BASED RESEARCH

Beyond documentary types of work are studies that attempt to provide an understanding
of why customers have the perceptions they do and what may be done to change those
perceptions. the firm with recommendations on how to improve customer satisfaction.

METHODS

QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH STUDIES

Quantitative studies allow a firm to develop an understanding of the "big picture" of their
customers' experiences based upon a relatively small number of interviews. This
"sample" of the firm's customers must be carefully designed and drawn if the results of
the study are to be considered representative of the customer population as a whole. In
most cases, the results of quantitative studies are based upon the responses of a relatively
"large" number of interviews.

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH STUDIES

Qualitative studies are used by firms to provide a more detailed and/or unconstrained
understanding of customer experiences. In most cases, the results of qualitative studies
are based upon dozens of interviews. Qualitative studies are not designed to provide
insights that are projectable to the customer population.

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN 7 STEPS

1. Encourage Face-To-Face Dealings

2. Respond to Messages Promptly & Keep Your Clients Informed

3. Be Friendly and Approachable

4. Have a Clearly-Defined Customer Service Policy

5. Attention to Detail (also known as 'The Little Niceties')

3
6. Anticipate Your Client's Needs & Go Out Of Your Way to Help Them Out

7. Honour Your Promises

THE CUSTOMER FOCUS

Customer service training for companies who want to create a stronger service culture
that builds loyal relationships with their customers and a better environment for their
employees.

What is The Customer Focus?

 Customer Focus is about getting input from the customer far in advance of the
sale - perhaps even before the product or service is designed.
 Customer Focus is about getting all employees to look at their job through the
eyes of the customer.
 Customer Focus is about adding value at all levels of the organization - not just
sales and customer service.

4
 CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
CRM (customer relationship management) is an information industry term for
methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage
customer relationships in an organized way.

7.1 CONCLUSION

From above it can be concluded that all the business enter prices are focusing on
customer satisfaction and developing themselves as customer focused enterprises which
are aimed at providing improved features for the same amount or same features for
reduced cost to meet their expectations or to exceed their expectations. In present
scenario business enter prices are focused more on customer retention rather then
acquiring new customers which can be possible only through customer focus and
production.