Thursday 21 March 2013

From 'Customer Satisfaction' to 'Customer Delight'


In business, when customers' expectations are met, the out come is satisfaction with the product or service. This means that a business has fulfilled the contract with the customer, and the customer is expected to be happy about that. However, satisfaction is no longer enough for customers who constantly demand for more than they receive. They expect much more from businesses even if they don't request for it, they want to be delighted about the product or service coming from a business. Studies have suggested that for a business to develop and maintain loyalty, it must go beyond mere satisfaction; that is, it must delight or over reward its customers.

Customer Delight is a positive emotional state that comes as a result of exceeding one’s expectations to a surprising degree. Delight requires a mixture of joy and surprise.  It is a more positive and more emotional response than simply excellent.
While customer satisfaction is generally based on exceeding one's expectations, customer delight requires that customers receive a positive surprise that is beyond their expectations. 

Berman Barry identified the important differences between satisfaction and delight:
  • Satisfaction is more cognitive; delight is more affective. 
  • Satisfaction is based on perceptions, while delight is more emotional. 
  • Delight is often associated with such emotions as arousal, joy, and pleasure.
  • While satisfaction is based on meeting or exceeding expectations, delight requires out-of-the-ordinary performance
To continue to survive in a competitive market, you need to give your customers more than they expect, you have to delight them.

Monday 18 March 2013

How to Incease Your Customers' Loyalty and Encourage Repeat Purchases


Here are 4 simple ways for you to increase your customers' loyalty and encourage repeat purchases:

  • Always keep in touch with your customers.
Your customers are your friends, treat them as one. The easiest way for them to forget you is to stop hearing from you. Any when you are not calling, be sure that your competitors are talking to them. When  know that you care about their needs, they will also care about your .
  • Make your service value noticeable
Customers want to know the value they will earn by patronizing you. What value does your business have over that of competitors? It could be as simple as saving time, or more money. Give them something that will help them place a value on your business more than that of the competitor.

  • Do you customers have an experience that you can share?
Nothing sales more than a wonderful experience from a satisfied customer. Make the best use of your satisfied customers' experiences. When your customers share their experiences with you, share that experience with others. Customers feel more secured when they see others who can testify about your product or service.

  • Help your customers succeed
As your customers patronize you, also patronize them if their businesses meet your need in any way. You can also help them by linking them up with customers that may need their services. Let the relationship be one of mutual benefit.

It's easier to nurture existing relationships than make a new one. No business survives without customer loyalty and repeat purchases. The only way to make that possible is to build a wonderful relationship with your customers, give them wow! experience, and they will remain loyal to you.



Originally Written by
Lenann McGookey Gardner

Lenann Gardner is the author of "Got Sales? The Complete Guide to Today's Proven Methods for Selling Services." A Harvard MBA, Lenann was the #1 sales representative worldwide at a unit of Xerox Corporation, and achieved unprecedented results as an executive at Mattel and Blue Cross Blue Shield. She is a winner of the American Marketing Association's Professional Services "Marketer of the Year" award. For more information, call 505.828.1788, or write Lenann@YouCanSell.com

Monday 11 March 2013

Sometimes, Facebook Destroys Startups Built For Its Platform

Investors and entrepreneurs say that the unpredictable way that Facebook cuts off apps or suppresses their presence has made them increasingly wary of building companies that rely on Facebook. Some believe Facebook could eventually attract regulatory scrutiny because of its ability to make or break companies that rely on its billion-strong base of users

Alaba Market: Piracy Business Worth Millions in Nigeria

Founded in the 1970s, Alaba International Market, located along the Lagos-Badagry Expressway is by far the biggest electronics market in the West African sub-region. Thousands of people throng the market daily from as far as Ghana, East Africa, Togo, and Benin Republic to buy a wide range of items such as computers, broadcast equipment, television, videos, household appliances, refrigerators, video games, generators, security equipment and CDs. The market has a mixture of individual customers and retailers who bulk-buy for their shops across Nigeria and West Africa. Manufacturers also ensure that their products are represented in the market. Retailers from all major Nigerian cities come to the market for their supply of electronics and allied products. To an ordinary man on the street, Alaba market is just a thriving market but behind the business transactions in the market is an unquantifiable piracy business of all kinds.

The situation has got so bad that even record label owners now come to the market to make distribution deals. Top music stars such as PSquare, Tuface and Nice were recently reported to have made bargains with some known music pirates in the market to sell off outright the right to some of their albums. The move is believed to be a clever attempt to put the responsibility of marketing their album on the pirates since they determine which CD and DVD sell in the market. A businessman in this sort of business in the market told our reporter that every reasonable artist who wants to succeed must come to negotiate with them.
Speaking to our reporter, he said: “If an artist has a recorded album and wants it marketed, all he needs do is come to us, because we are the market. What we offer to pay depends on an artist; if it is an
established artist, we could pay up to N60 million for a three-year contract, but if it is an artist that is yet to be established, we might offer them N1 million since we are taking a risk and we don’t know if the public will accept the artist’s album.”

A new dimension was recently added to the piracy business as two persons were arrested in the market for allegedly pirating DSTV signals. The suspects John Andy and Valentine Ezenwaka were arrested for importing, selling, and distributing devices capable of illegally accessing DSTV’s broadcast signals to members of the public.
They were arrested last Friday by Police from the Special Fraud Unit, SFU. The suspects are believed to have made huge sums of money selling the decoders which transmits all DSTV channel at no cost to the user.

As the piracy business continues to thrive in Alaba market, many have called for the closure of the market. Recently, the chairman of Copyright Society of Nigeria, COSON, and Mr. Tony Okoroji added his voice when he advised government to seal the market.  Okoroji opined that since Alaba market has become a haven for piracy, it makes sense to close the market.
The traders in the market however disagree with the idea, saying that other genuine businesses go on in the market and that it will be injustice to close a market because of a few individuals.
—Henry Ojelu

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