The Indian Optician, October, 2009
A few weeks back, I was with a big group of dealers from the optical trade. Various topics of common interest were brought up and the discussion moved towards how one could maintain and increase customer footfall. There was, and rightly so, concern and anxiety about the issue. Everyone was genuinely involved and interested. Increasing competition, organised players, mushrooming of shops, improved ambience, price cuts etc. were indicated as being factors that played an important role.
At that point, someone asked for my comments. “In such a situation, one cannot compete on ‘pricing’ and/or by spending money on ‘advertising’ alone. Each of these can be matched or overdone by other competitors, draining everyone’s resources, leaving everyone’s efforts ineffective or yielding suboptimal results”, I said. My view is that ‘customer experience’ becomes important to create a difference under these circumstances. One should not only look at ‘customer satisfaction’, but beyond that, at ‘customer delight’ ….. leading to loyalty, repeat visits and referrals !! See whether you have a ‘delighted’ customer walking out of your door !!
“How does one know that the customer was delighted ?” asked someone. While there are techniques and ways to find this out (like calling up the customer, having a feedback form, tracking repeat visits or just plain and simple asking the customer there and then) your sixth sense helps you know, feel and realise within yourself after you have dealt with the customer …..
At this stage of discussion, someone in the group stood up and said “Where does this lead to ? The other day I had a customer in my shop, who was bargaining for Rs.20/- for a solution bottle. She would go to a parlour and spend Rs.1000/-; she would spend Rs.200/- at a chaat shop without asking any question. But for a solution bottle she was bargaining for a mere Rs.20/-“. At this, the whole group broke into a hearty laughter and applause, as if each one was saying “Yes, I can understand this so well, it happens so often at my shop too”.
This reaction was quite shocking. My question to the group was “Do you have a plaque in your shop with ‘Customer is God’ written on it ?”. Everyone acknowledged having similar quotes put up at some location or the other. All I could say is that it was belief in that quotation that would make a difference in ‘customer experience’, leading them from mere ‘satisfaction’ to where they would know for themselves whether they were giving delight or not. It is one’s conscience which plays back the ‘truth’ in all such situations and that they should go back and ask themselves whether the ‘applause’ really showed that they ‘cared’ for their customers and ‘respected’ them ….. This was the time I thought God was ridiculed …..
Care and Respect are the initial and very basic conditions in the long and tough journey towards customer satisfaction, delight, loyalty, repeat visits and finally referrals, where the customer becomes your ambassador ….. helping you create your very own ‘Distinct and Unique Brand Identity’, which no one can match or replicate.
How or why should one then expect the customer not to bargain for Rs.20/- ? If the customer happily keeps feeding on ‘gol gappas’ without asking a question, she definitely sees more value creation and a better experience from this ‘chaat’ seller, compared to what she is paying !! One necessary condition for creating this ‘experience’ is that the ‘perceived value’ by the customer, should be higher than what ‘price’ she pays. This is the only way the equation will work !! And The Only Way to create a distinction and acceptance, is to ‘Step into The Customers’ shoes and see how things look from there …..
There is saying in India ‘Atithi devo bhava’ (A Guest is to be treated like God). In any case, even if a customer does not buy anything, he/she is a guest in our shop, to be treated like God !!
Would the person, whose comments about his customer brought an applause from the group, buy from himself ?????
If ‘Customer is God’ the least one can do is answer the following :
- Do I truly care for and respect my customer ?
- Do I feel good about representing my organization – and its products and services? Why / why not?
- Why should customers invest their time and money with us?
- If we were the customers, would we want to do business with us? Why / why not?
- What can we do to improve the experience our customers have with us?
- Why should we bother? What are the benefits for us?
- What do we need in order to make that improved experience happen?
- What can we do to help each other be more successful in that effort?
God is about love, and we can dialogue with Him and ask Him anything we want to know. Same is true for customers as well.
Have a delightful journey ….. but DO NOT RIDICULE YOUR GOD, ever ….. remember that he feeds your family too !!
J.P.Singh
JPS Consulting
Just Plain & Simple
….. Helping Realise Potential
JPS Customer Value Academy
….. Helping Create Customer Value
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