Is Customer Satisfaction Enough?

You already know that measuring customer satisfaction is important – you’re doing it with Mystery Customer. Our reports let you know where your organisation’s strengths and weaknesses lie. And you can use them to provide your staff with feedback on where they’re performing well and where they need to improve.

But is this enough?

Research organisation Gallup says that it isn’t. Their research shows that customer engagement is a much more powerful profit driver than customer satisfaction. When customers are fully engaged, they will spend more, return more often, and stay longer. And of course that makes them your most profitable customers.

The information that Mystery Customer's reports provide, give you a strong indication of where your service may need improvement. But part of the problem is that customer satisfaction scores measure past performance. They can't predict how a customer will behave in the future - whether they will come back.

What is customer engagement?

Gallup describes customer engagement as a combination of customer loyalty and a customer’s emotional attachment to a brand. And they say that customers want more than transactions – they want relationships.

So how do you identify these ‘engaged’ customers and how do you get them engaged?

Customer confidence

For your customers to become engaged, they must first have confidence in your 'brand'. Your customers won’t have confidence in your brand if their bill is wrong, or if your staff stare blankly when they are asked about your happy hour prices. And if you position yourself as ‘the friendly business’ this will only inspire confidence if your staff remain friendly every minute they are in contact with the customer.

How do you create a loyal engaged customer?

So what can a manager do to persuade an uncommitted customer to move from being just 'satisfied' to become loyal and emotionally engaged?

Gallup’s research has identified three powerful ways managers can reach that goal:

• Creating products (or services) that are as flawless as possible
• Training your employees to act as ambassadors of your brand
• Transforming problems into opportunities to please customers

Flawless...

A Flawless product may seem unreachable, but you can take practical steps to come close. For example, in the hospitality industry this might mean your staff proactively offer information on today’s specials, dinner orders that come out in a timely fashion and, premises that are always clean and well maintained. Your staff should expect that the service they are providing should be as close to perfect as possible - and always improving.

Employee ambassadors...

Rather than simply following orders, you want your staff to be recognised as ambassadors of your brand by always displaying the right behaviours and attitudes, even away from the workplace. They should be so enthusiastic about working with your organisation, they become walking billboards for your business.

Transforming problems into opportunities...

The third approach is perhaps the most surprising. When customers experience problems – say their order has been forgotten, or their steak is overcooked – a funny thing happens. If you deal quickly and effectively with their problems, customers are just as likely to develop an attachment to your organisation as to a competitor who never created a problem at all.

How Mystery Customer can increase Customer Engagement?

So, while customer satisfaction may not be enough by itself, you can use the information in your Mystery Customer reports to identify how your current service levels are impacting customer perceptions of product quality, whether your employees are acting as brand ambassadors, and whether problems are being transformed into opportunities. Using this information, you can start to look for ways to increase your customer engagement, and so ultimately increase your sales and profitability.