Ins!ghts

Lots have been said and discussed about the change of customer behaviours and expectations. In order to find an answer for this million dollar question, “What do Customers Want?” I researched into this topics by consulting EduAction’s trainers & coaches and also heavy reading on mind shifting ideas books like Seith Godin’s “Tribe”, Peter Fisk’s “Customer Genius” & a few conventional customer service excellence books like “Customer is the Boss” & “Under Promise Over Deliver”

• What I have found out and managed to summarize in a diagram is what I called the 3E (Please see diagram above); Expectation, Experience & Emotion. This is what customer want! To keep it short and simple, you are able to keep and generate happy & loyal customers by first manage their expectations. Many complaints started when customer do not get what they expected or being sold on a false expectation. The boring adage of “Under promise & Over Deliver” is true and will be always true. Put it in simple

equation:Lost customer (S) = unfulfilled expectation (U)

≥ fulfilled expectation = Happy & loyal customer

• Second, Customers buy out of emotion reasons, not logical reasons. We need to constantly ask ourselves, What is the customers pain (feeling question)?, Why are they having this pain? and how we can help to eradicate the pain and bring them the pleasure. Focus your marketing and selling strategies (online or offline) by touching the feeling factors. One good example is to not to forget to use, pictures, slide shows or sound effect in your website and blog to create the value & perceptions your customers desire.
• Lastly, is the newly adopted and powerful concept of social media marketing where  you create a network for people to communicate, feedback & co-create your brand among your brand community.  Seith Godin had put it nicely called “Tribe”. You need to create the unforgettable experience your customer have after using your product or services, so much so they become your raving fans. The word they use here is “Engage”.  In view of this, you need to adopt the tribe culture and not only gaining and retaining customer strategies & lead your tribe passionately so that they can be your word of mouth marketing agents.