Customer satisfaction is one of the key elements to an organizations success. In an ever changing competitive market, many companies are implementing strategies to acquire and maintain customers in order to uphold a competitive edge. Measuring and analyzing customer satisfaction can help an organization understand and gain insight on how to retain and attract new customers. There are many methods for measuring customer satisfaction which include; customer loyalty, surveys, the Kano model, , in-depth interviews and customer visits. The results of these methods will help a company determine customer requirements and their satisfaction when compared to the competition. Although it is important to gather customer satisfaction information, it is imperative that a company uses this it to improve the business.
There are numerous methodologies in gather customer satisfaction through survey. One survey will give the customer to option to pick from above expectations to below expections and include and option for no opinion and an are for comments. Another survey would offer a scale with a number value, showing 4 as excellent and 1 as poor. Another type of survey is more tailor made and would ask the customer how satisfied they were with certain aspects of the organizations:
1. The time it took to get a response to your question
2. Was the information useful and thorough
3. The politeness and friendliness of the associate
4. The accuracy of the information
5. The confidentiality of the information
6. The reputation and image of the company
7. The competitiveness of the company’s service
8. The company overall
(Turner, C. n.d)
Another stratergy for measuring customer satisfaction is the Kano model. This model helps a company uncover, categorize and incorporate customer requirements into three groups; delighters, satisfied and dissatisfied. Delighters are requirements that are not expected by the consumer, but are a welcome surprise to any product or service. Satisfers are requirements that a consumer would want, but not nesscessriyl need. These requirements are not normally expected, it does weight heavy in satisfying the customer. Lastly, dissatisfiers are requirements that are expected in a product or service, and are assumed as a given. When these requirements are not available, it can be quite demaging to a customer satisfaction. (Evans, J & Lindsay, W. pg.200).
A third method is measuring customer satisfaction is an in-depth interview. An in-depth interview includes confidential and secure conversation between two people concerning the organization. The purpose of this type of method is to gain a thorough knowledge of specific areas of concern. It can offer specific answers as well as extensive knowledge about individual experiences, opinions and motives for the need of the goods or service.
Customer visits are another excellent way to gather information on how well the customer feels the company is doing. A company can perform this type of visit in different ways. Many top executives of very successful