Is the customer king?

Is the customer king?

November 12, 2009 12:56 PM | By Iain Lovatt

These days, consumers have more choice than ever before, through more diverse channels - from storefront to mail order to online. Expectation is higher than ever. Companies that fail to live up to that expectation find customers leaving without comment - the majority of dissatisfied customers will not complain, they will simply change suppliers. Those businesses that introduce an exceptional level of customer service are differentiating themselves from the competition in an increasingly saturated marketplace. Which is why it is so surprising that business, to a large extent, is still failing to address the issue of customer service. According to research conducted in the UK by the National Consumer Council (NCC) early in 2006, "a consistent set of issues" were mentioned by consumers, from "robotic" call centres to hard-sell extended warranties, missed appointments, and poor after-sales service, among others. But are all customers worthy of good service? Is the customer King or are they just customers until we tell them they are King? Do we are marketers need to differentiate one customer from another and allocate scarce resources to service only those that can spend more money with us? Any ideas or experiences anyone?

Tags:

Best practice Q&A, Client Side, Customer insight, Data, Positioning

Comments (4)

TrackBacks (0)

Make a comment

4 Comments

Martin Meyer-Gossner said:

"... the majority of dissatisfied customers will not complain, they will simply change suppliers." This is probably the best case scenario for companies. With social media on the rise, companies can be lucky when their names are not mentioned if customers are not satisfied with the customer service provided. Just some months ago, I have focussed on this topic from my own experience...

http://www.thestrategyweb.com/social-media-nightmare-or-gift-for-customer-service

November 13, 2009 11:12 AM

Per Olsson said:

Customers should be differentiated from each other since they bring different value to suppliers.

The challenge is to figure out who is kings and who is "only" a ordinary customer.

My experience is that customers should be treated as customers from the beginning and after a while when there is a relationship between us they should be made kings if they bring good value (goodwill, market, economic).

November 13, 2009 11:37 AM

Jimmy said:

I agree with Per. A business needs to learn through relationships to determine which ones are "ordinary" customers and which ones are king.

November 13, 2009 10:33 PM

Bitesize Marketing said:

In my opinion you should treat all your customers as kings. Offer exceptional service and you may just turn those occasional customers into your biggest revenue generators. Small things that don't cost a lot, can go a long way in terms of creating customer loyalty. Social media is a fantastic example of this. In a highly competitive market place the service you deliver could (and should) be your biggest differentiator. Remember the age old saying that is costs 6 time more to get a new customer than it does to keep an existing one.

November 16, 2009 11:35 AM