Customers Count
Bringing Back the Buyers
Loyal? “Satisfied” customers are like, so not!
BY JACK MACKEY
Last column, I discussed creating a customer experience “so
cool” or “so convenient” or “so fast” or “so customized to fit
me” that once I experience it, it makes an impression on me—
and I want to experience it again.
Let me clarify what I mean. We’re not just talking about a “good” experience. And not just a “satisfying” experience. Satisfaction isn’t
enough. To keep people coming back for more grande mocha lattes (or
whatever), companies have to do more than satisfy. Why? Because satisfied customers aren’t loyal customers. That’s one of the surprising things
we’ve learned in our work.
We talk to customers. A whole lot of customers. Some 100 million
of them. In 28 countries. In 14 languages. Those customers have told us
a lot of things over the years. A lot of things that wouldn’t make sense to
most people because most people don’t speak 14 languages. Whatever
language they speak, it turns out that all customers have wants. The best
multiunit businesses—the kind that area developers operate—know
how to deliver those things, those “key drivers” of the customer experience. They focus on improving those key drivers, on improving the customer experience, for a good reason: because a great customer experience is the hardest thing for competitors to copy.
It’s hard to copy because it’s hard to deliver in the first place. To do
that, a business—especially a multiunit business—has to know how its
customers feel about the experience they get in each location, store, or
restaurant. That means continual surveying of customers and continuous gathering of data. Oh, the data. You can’t imagine the data that can
be compiled on the customer experience!
But data doesn’t do anything by itself. It just sits there in a box or on
a screen. Very dull, the data. It’s exciting, though, that the best companies can make the data dance. They correlate their customer service
metrics—the results of all those surveys—with their financial performance.
They discover 1) what customers want from them, and, 2) what customers are actually getting from them. Then they create systematic ways
for the company and its employees to act on that information—
everyone from executives at the corporate headquarters to managers and employees at each location. In working with our clients and in talking to
100 million of the customers they serve, we have learned certain principles that apply to multiunit operators everywhere.
Principle #1: A satisfied customer isn’t loyal
So a customer walks into a store or a restaurant or consumer service
company. (I promise, this is not the setup to a joke. In fact, it’s not even
funny.) The customer finds a pleasing environment, knowledgeable and
helpful employees, and a good, quality product. The customer walks
out of the store or restaurant or consumer service company and is satisfied with the experience. At least that’s what the customer would tell
you if you asked.
To make it simple, let’s say you just asked, “Were you A) Satisfied, or
B) Dissatisfied?” They’d say “A.” So if you then asked something like,
“Would you visit this business again and would you recommend it to
others?” you’d expect the customer to say, “Sure, totally.” (Well, maybe
you’d expect them to say something more scholarly; depends on the customer.) Thing is, not all satisfied customers you asked this question to
would say, “Sure, totally.” Take a look at the accompanying figure.
Satisfied customers are not “highly likely” to return or recommend
It shows that less than half of “satisfied” customers would say they’re
highly likely to return to the business. And less than one third would
say they’d recommend that business to others.
So what’s that mean?
This is important. And confusing. Because isn’t a satisfied customer a
happy customer? And, therefore, a repeat customer? In a word: Nope.
If you survey customers and ask them to rate their experience on,
say, a 5-point scale where 5 represents “highly satisfied” and 4 represents
“satisfied,” it’s important to know how wide the gap can be between a 4
and a 5. They’re not the same. They’re not even close. In fact, a 4 might
mean almost nothing. It might actually be an expression of indifference.
In talking to 100 million people, that’s what we’ve learned: that customers
who say they are satisfied are just as likely to visit a competitor as they are
to return. This means that if your customers say they are “satisfied” and not
“highly satisfied,” then you haven’t established a competitive advantage. “
Satisfied” is a shrug. A “whatever.” A “sure” without the “totally.”
A business that wants to make its customer experience an engine that
drives financial performance must inspire team members to deliver more
than mere satisfaction. Satisfaction is the wrong target. (If you want to
know more about how we do this, write me and request the article “Five
Things We Learned from Talking to 100 Million People.”) AD
Jack Mackey is vice president of Service Management Group. Contact him
at jmackey@servicemanagement.com or (816) 448-4556.
