As there are two basic faces of each and everything, same is the case with the humans. When we study the two basic opposing behaviours, positive and negative, it is termed as consumer behaviour and is one of the basic sources of competitive advantage in the present times. Where the positive behaviour becomes a source of increasing revenues and automatically generated public relations, the negative behaviours pose an obvious as well as potential problem in both the long and short run. This article will elaborate how some of the apparently beneficial and positive buying behaviours can do more harm than good.
Those who are in the field of customer service, which is a very crucial area in the marketing field, know the importance of concepts described above. It is in response to this and other similar concepts that customer service and after sales services we receive these days is considerably higher than those of a decade ago. It is due to this very fact that customers are getting more and more demanding.
The increasing level of competition has lead to better customer service on one hand and extra or undue forbearance of inappropriate behaviour from customers’ side on the other hand. Meeting the demands of those customers who appear to give more business to the company causes little benefits. The only result of all such acts of customer service is increasing toll of demands and decreasing profit margins.
To explain the fact, let us take an example in which we will make a comparison of two customers. The customer 1 is used to make large amount of shopping and therefore appears to be a better source of revenue for the company. The customer 2 makes normal or average purchases. The time interval and other shopping behaviours in terms of sales is more or less same except the sales volume. The former customer, however, takes much more time to get satisfied and demands greater amount of after sales services. The later customer, customer 2, makes purchases in a careful manner. He does launches complaints but it is much easier to meet his demands as compared to the person who thinks that he has given much more money to the company and therefore needs extra care.
If you analyse the above presented situation, it will not take much effort and time to judge which customer is better for the company to deal with. It is the point which most of the managers and sales representatives do not analyse and implement.
A customer who makes average purchases but needs an appropriate amount of care is more likely to remain loyal to the company as compared to the one who always comes back with a bundle of complains in the huge amount of products bought.
If you want to focus on the qualitative as well as quantitative aspect of the customer service you are providing to your customers, you should try to focus on the customers who exhibit an attitude same as that of Mr. A. Such customers are not only easy to deal with but also are more brand loyal and are a constant source of revenue as compared to the big players.
To sum it up, customer service is one of the most valuable resources of the organization in terms of both human and non-human capital. The efforts, therefore, should be directed as carefully as any other kind of resource allocation is done.
The Author is a passionate ne tworker and shares the Autolautsprecher site where you can find out all about Auto. He has experience with all this marketing strategies you have read in this article.