Today's game: Satisfy, delight and surprise

Today's game: Satisfy, delight and surprise

Burhanuddin Abe, Contributor, Jakarta

Indonesia's first-ever presidential election consisted of many
elements similar to those used in marketing communications. It
was an interesting exercise in positioning -- akin to the brand
positioning in marketing -- managing the candidates' images and
promoting their differing visions to the nation. More simply put,
campaign teams managed the rhetoric and promises of the
candidates to lure their "customers", the voters.

While many people think that politicians tend to overpromise
and underdeliver, a marketer will be doomed if he or she does not
deliver the promise or even if there is the slightest of
inconsistency in the product or service offered.

Naturally, the promise has to be kept even by those in the
front line facing customers, the salespeople.

As elaborated by marketing expert Hermawan Kartajaya, the
classical adage -- customer satisfaction -- is simply delivering
what is promised in a company's marketing communications strategy
to match its customers' needs. Dissatisfaction is certain if the
customer feels there is even a fraction of shortcoming in the
product or service.

However, many marketing experts as well as marketers realize
that satisfying customers is not enough in today's highly
competitive business environment. Hence, instead of "satisfy your
customer", a newer slogan coined and put into action is: "Delight
your customer".

Pine and Gilmore wrote in The Experience Economy that due to
today's advanced marketing communications through the Internet
more efforts are required to satisfy, or better, delight
customers. Marketers are advised to avoid any sacrifice on the
part of customers at all cost. Customize and personalize are two
important key strategies. Know what your customers want and
provide them with exactly that.

Or, even better, go up another level. Surprise your customer.
This is possible when you exceed your customer's expectations and
the positive impression will be almost indelible on his or her
mind -- like the surprise people get from having their mind read.

IndoKadoCom can be cited as a good example. This 24-hour
virtual shop, which sells flower bouquets, cakes and wrapped
gifts through its website, has been a major success story since
it was established in Jakarta in January, 2000.

Quick, reliable delivery is only one element of its plus
points. IndoKadoCom's same-day-service at competitive rates
delivers your order within a matter of hours, as long as the
recipient is within the company's network of destinations.

For Jakarta, which is notorious for its traffic jams, the
company uses a mobile florist with refrigeration for flowers to
keep them fresh. Thus, orders can be processed here and
immediately delivered.

Today, IndoKadoCom's network is not only available in almost
every province in the country, but also worldwide in hundreds of
major cities. For its global network, its IndoKado Floral Network
cooperates with hundreds of florists in 75 countries. Like its
local service, the company also ensures the same quick, reliable
delivery of quality, fresh flowers abroad. "Our commitment is to
replace products or even return payments should any customer is
dissatisfied," one of the company's senior managers said.

To maintain customers' loyalty, marketers have no choice but
to enhance every element in their products and services to reach
the highest level of excellence.

According to Handi Irawan, a consultant at a marketing and
research company, Frontier, basically five elements create
customer satisfaction.

First and most fundamental is the quality of a product -- its
performance, durability, range of features, reliability,
consistency and design.

The second factor is price. The price has to be right without
compromising quality.

For certain types of products and customer groups, price is
not a decisive factor. And, unfortunately, both quality and price
can be easily imitated by competitors.

Hence, element No. 3 -- customer-oriented service - has for
some years now been acknowledged to be the more important trigger
for customer satisfaction. Such service is only possible if
supported by the right system, advanced technology as well and
training for the customer-oriented human factor -- the company's
management and employees.

To start with, corporate culture and attitude from top to
bottom have to be revamped in this direction. This is not as easy
as reforming the other elements and does not happen overnight.
Although it may sound intangible at the outset, it gives
concrete, tangible results for customers and soon brings in
returns for the company. It is an element that comprises
reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy, all for the
benefit of those the company's revenue depends on, the customers.

Element No. 4 is to "prioritize customers' emotions or
emotional needs". This is more related to image and presentation.
An example of this is how expensive luxury car-makers guard their
brands for the sake of their customers' prestige. Exclusive or
established brands of watches are another example. Here the
customers' emotional value is at stake.

Finally, the fifth element is convenience -- at a reasonable
cost, of course. Financial institutions have made efforts to
reduce the long queuing of customers by providing services
through their websites or ATMs. Customers' complaints and claims
are also dealt with efficiently with customer satisfaction in
mind.

While all five elements are of paramount importance, each type
of company has to decide on the priority of each element.
Companies dealing in commodities, for instance, still find
quality and price as the foremost factors to attracting
customers. Hotels, restaurants and banks, meanwhile, guard the
quality of service and continuously strive to take it to the
highest level of excellence.

Handi says, however, that the priority list may change based
on the prevailing economic situation. During the country's
economic crisis several years ago, when banks offered high
interest rates, customers viewed this as the most satisfying
element. In today's close-to-parity situation, with banks giving
similar interest rates, they have no choice but to take care of
the other elements.

The business game today is more than just satisfying
customers, it is about delighting or even surprising them.
Otherwise, you may be surprised -- by how few customers you have.