Digitalization, new or fourth industrial revolution, or remote services are the predicaments for the sprawling magnitude and importance of individualized digital marketing communications in consumer as well as industrial markets. Marketing communications are offering hopes for better future, addressing successfully customer existing needs or creating new ones. Marketing communications stage the scene for strong positive emotional attachment to companies, brands, products and services. In order to step out from the crowd, marketing communications are confident about making strong promises. The bolder and clearer the better. However, promises may backfire as they clearly set minimum levels of customer expectations. If any brand is to reach high customer satisfaction, customer expectations need to be met or better exceeded.
The disconfirmation theory of customer satisfaction celebrates 50 years in 2021, first derived by Bernard Weiner as attribution theory in psychology and soon adopted and renamed by Richard L. Oliver for the fields of consumer behavior and marketing. Customers are by definition unable to judge each product or service purely on its own merits, without any preconceived notions about what it is like. Comparing and contrasting customer experience to one’s own preconceived notions has been the dominant logic behind judging customer satisfaction. All common approaches of customer satisfaction such as Kano model, zones of tolerance, SERVQUAL or SERVPERF rely on (comparatively low) prior customer expectations to reach customer excitement levels.
Technological advancements in the field of internet of things in particular provided businesses with better tools for predictions of timely and cost effective maintenance operations. The discipline of predictive or pre-emptive maintenance has held a prominent spot among industry professionals and scientists recently. Performance and operating conditions of machines are being constantly monitored to reduce the likelihood of failures and call for a service before they break down. Successful after-sales is no more based on the break-fix model. What may behavioral economists, marketers, and other customer satisfaction professionals learn from that?
Rather than analyzing customer satisfaction data and fixing what went wrong in retrospect, we shall be on top of things by making sure appropriate and achievable customer expectations are being communicated to customers in the first place. Aspirational catchy marketing communications, which is there to spark interest, may need to be played down in subsequent interactions with a customer. Alternative less desirable options may need to be presented to customers once they start having doubts about their choice, for instance. Customers may need to be provided with appropriate reference points. Framing and anchoring are the key elements for cementing desired boundaries of informed customer judgement. Connecting customers one to another or presenting different testimonials may introduce them to appropriate social proof.
Evolving use of digital technologies and big data may allow for touchpoints along customer journey to be constantly monitored for satisfaction. Customer journey may need to become varied according to typical scenarios, where adjustments in communication, sales scripts, service delivery or even product specifications happen instantly in order to produce well-rounded positively echoed customer experience. Marketers shall navigate the ship of customer satisfaction before it hits a rock rather than focusing on dealing with customer complaints to reduce collateral (reputational) damages.
Résumé
O preventivním řízení zákaznické spokojenosti: Jak vytvářet a upravovat aspirativní zákaznická očekávání
Teorie diskonfirmace, která je základem všech současných přístupů k zákaznické spokojenosti, slaví v roce 2021 padesáté výročí svého vzniku. Rozvoj behaviorální ekonomie, spotřebního chování, psychologie a zejména technologie však nabízí příležitost k proaktivní změně pohledu na výslednou zákaznickou spokojenost. Tak jako se současný operační výzkum zabývá v současnosti se zvláštním důrazem prediktivní údržbou, mělo by se i spotřební chování zabývat prediktivním řízením zákaznické spokojenosti. Zákaznická spokojenost digitálního věku by měla být monitorována v každém okamžiku zákaznické cesty a jednotlivé následující interakce se zákazníkem upravovány tak, aby výsledná zákaznická zkušenost (a tedy i celková spokojenost) dosahovala požadovaných parametrů.
Kontakt na autorov/Address
doc. Ing. Pavel Štrach, Ph.D., Ph.D., ŠKODA AUTO Vysoká škola o.p.s., Katedra marketingu a managementu, Na Karmeli 1457, 293 01 Mladá Boleslav, Česká republika, e-mail: pavel.strach@savs.cz
