A recent Harvard Business Review article, “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” by Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nicholas Toman is causing a bit of a stir in the Customer Experience Management ranks. The title itself can make a Customer Experience Management professional jump out of his or her seat and shout "Heresy! Call out the Inquisition." (Read the article here if you currently subscribe to HBR or buy it for $7 if you don’t:Dixon, M., Freeman, K. & Toman, N. “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers,” Harvard Business Review, Jul-Aug 2010. Web. 08 July 2010.)
However, after reading the actual article and various opinions offered about it in the blogosphere, I have to say that I agree with just about everything the authors say and recommend. In the third paragraph, they say “Consumers’ impulse to punish bad service—at least more readily than to reward delightful service . . .”. This immediately brought to mind dear Professor Kano, whose theory is the lynchpin of GfK’s approach to customer loyalty management that we’ve been advising our clients on for the past twenty years. (For more on Kano see Bruce Temkin’s blog post: What Do Customers Want? Professor Kano Knows « Customer Experience Matters).
Briefly, the Kano model distinguishes three different types of customer needs that each affect customer satisfaction and loyalty in different ways.
Basic or "must haves" where poor performance will lead to customer dissatisfaction but excellent performance will not create loyalty.
Desired or "more is better" are one dimensional attributes where poor performance leads to dissatisfaction while outstanding performance causes customers to be delighted.
Attractive experiences surprise and delight customers. These are things that delight customers when delivered well but have no affect on dissatisfaction when they are missing or not fulfilled.
Customer service interactions as described in the article are probably one dimensional attributes. Customers are dissatisfied when you don’t solve their problem or issue satisfactorily but they are delighted when you resolve the issue with the least amount of effort required on their part.
Still, I do have a few quibbles with the article:
The research focuses mainly on customer service interactions dealing with customer problems or product and service issues. Now I can’t quote the exact number for every industry, but I think it’s safe to say that many, if not most, customers do not regularly have problems with the companies they deal with.
It’s also safe to say that if you want those problem-free customers to be loyal to you, you better try to delight them with a positive and memorable experience. In this Experience Economy with so many competitors offering very similar products that meet the basic requirements, the only thing that will distinguish you from the competition is delivering a great, value-added experience.
The definition of things to do to delight customers seems rather narrow. As the article points out earlier, because there is little relationship between satisfaction and loyalty you must exceed customer expectations to gain loyalty. This is something with which I think we can all agree. Now this may just be semantics but, if you exceed expectations, aren’t you delighting your customer? Isn’t providing the customer service experience described in the article exceeding customer expectations? And isn’t that then delighting the customer with a value-added experience?
I agree that many companies just don’t get it when they offer refunds, rebates, etc. to unhappy customers. For example, I work remotely and rely on the internet as my connection to the world. The other day, my high speed internet service experienced outages throughout the day. Every time I called, the reps were very friendly as they told me there was a service outage and the expected repair time was about sixty minutes. When I mentioned to one rep that this had been going on for hours now and that I hoped it would be fixed quickly because I work from home, she promptly said that for just $7.95 they could give me dial up service. The company probably thinks they were offering me something that would show they care, that might delight me. To me, it only showed that they are clueless. Just fix the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen again. And remember – if you’re going to offer an interim fix, make sure it really is a fix and not just something you’re able to offer.
But, quibbles aside, the article is based on sound principles and, in fact, offers excellent recommendations on how to delight customers in ways that build loyalty. The title may be a bit hyperbolic, but it sure caught my attention and I excuse HBR for resorting to the use of a “tabloid-like” tactic. But what do you think? Am I completely off base and missing something about the article?
A recent Harvard Business Review article, “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers” by Matthew Dixon, Karen Freeman, and Nicholas Toman is causing a bit of a stir in the Customer Experience Management ranks. The title itself can make a Customer Experience Management professional jump out of his or her seat and shout "Heresy! Call out the Inquisition." (Read the article here if you currently subscribe to HBR or buy it for $7 if you don’t:Dixon, M., Freeman, K. & Toman, N. “Stop Trying to Delight Your Customers,” Harvard Business Review, Jul-Aug 2010. Web. 08 July 2010.)
However, after reading the actual article and various opinions offered about it in the blogosphere, I have to say that I agree with just about everything the authors say and recommend. In the third paragraph, they say “Consumers’ impulse to punish bad service—at least more readily than to reward delightful service . . .”. This immediately brought to mind dear Professor Kano, whose theory is the lynchpin of GfK’s approach to customer loyalty management that we’ve been advising our clients on for the past twenty years. (For more on Kano see Bruce Temkin’s blog post: What Do Customers Want? Professor Kano Knows « Customer Experience Matters).
Briefly, the Kano model distinguishes three different types of customer needs that each affect customer satisfaction and loyalty in different ways.
Basic or "must haves" where poor performance will lead to customer dissatisfaction but excellent performance will not create loyalty.
Desired or "more is better" are one dimensional attributes where poor performance leads to dissatisfaction while outstanding performance causes customers to be delighted.
Attractive experiences surprise and delight customers. These are things that delight customers when delivered well but have no affect on dissatisfaction when they are missing or not fulfilled.
Customer service interactions as described in the article are probably one dimensional attributes. Customers are dissatisfied when you don’t solve their problem or issue satisfactorily but they are delighted when you resolve the issue with the least amount of effort required on their part.
Still, I do have a few quibbles with the article:
The research focuses mainly on customer service interactions dealing with customer problems or product and service issues. Now I can’t quote the exact number for every industry, but I think it’s safe to say that many, if not most, customers do not regularly have problems with the companies they deal with.
It’s also safe to say that if you want those problem-free customers to be loyal to you, you better try to delight them with a positive and memorable experience. In this Experience Economy with so many competitors offering very similar products that meet the basic requirements, the only thing that will distinguish you from the competition is delivering a great, value-added experience.
The definition of things to do to delight customers seems rather narrow. As the article points out earlier, because there is little relationship between satisfaction and loyalty you must exceed customer expectations to gain loyalty. This is something with which I think we can all agree. Now this may just be semantics but, if you exceed expectations, aren’t you delighting your customer? Isn’t providing the customer service experience described in the article exceeding customer expectations? And isn’t that then delighting the customer with a value-added experience?
I agree that many companies just don’t get it when they offer refunds, rebates, etc. to unhappy customers. For example, I work remotely and rely on the internet as my connection to the world. The other day, my high speed internet service experienced outages throughout the day. Every time I called, the reps were very friendly as they told me there was a service outage and the expected repair time was about sixty minutes. When I mentioned to one rep that this had been going on for hours now and that I hoped it would be fixed quickly because I work from home, she promptly said that for just $7.95 they could give me dial up service. The company probably thinks they were offering me something that would show they care, that might delight me. To me, it only showed that they are clueless. Just fix the problem and make sure it doesn’t happen again. And remember – if you’re going to offer an interim fix, make sure it really is a fix and not just something you’re able to offer.
But, quibbles aside, the article is based on sound principles and, in fact, offers excellent recommendations on how to delight customers in ways that build loyalty. The title may be a bit hyperbolic, but it sure caught my attention and I excuse HBR for resorting to the use of a “tabloid-like” tactic. But what do you think? Am I completely off base and missing something about the article?
Location Wars:The secrets of country brand marketing www.themarketer.co.uk Forget postcard clichés, country brand marketing has become big business as nations battle it out for top billing on the world stage to attract business and tourism. Muireann Bolger looks at what makes a strong country brand and the winners and losers of 2011
’Tis the season to be frugal www.economist.com THANKSGIVING DAY, which this year falls on Thursday November 24th, is fast approaching and retailers in America are getting ready to lay out their wares in the hope that the annual stampede by shoppers wi
08:56 PM
Nov 30
Attention Marketers: AMA TV brings you another great episode of marketing news and insights. Hear about big brands, networking and customer loyalty! This week hear how Gap is going back to basics and expanding their international presence, just in time for the holidays-networking, GfK Custom Research's 3 keys to help ensure a successful customer loyalty program and more!
AMA TV: Gap Goes Back to Basics videos.marketingpower.com Attention Marketers: AMA TV brings you another great episode of marketing news and insights. Hear about big brands, networking and customer loyalty! This week hear how Gap is going back
Younger Automobile Buyers Not as Brand Loyal as Older Counterparts www.marketwire.com NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - Oct 26, 2011) - During the past decade, automobile manufacturers have experienced a steady decline in customer loyalty for specific brands. This change signals the need for a new approach to marketing automobiles in the future according to a new survey conducted by GfK Au...
07:10 PM
Oct 26
What our experts are saying...
Jim Brown Consultant, GfK Shopper and Retail Strategy
