I head a lot of employees thinking that if they were to lead a business they would make sure thing go smooth and have no un-happy customers. And for sure I’ve heard a lot of people (and sometimes myself) complaining about the services provided by certain companies.
Yesterday for example I was at SMAEB – a motorcycle tradeshow here in Bucharest. I went to the Honda stand and I could feel that the crisis have hit hard. And I couldn’t stop thinking that because of the bad servicing I received last time, I’m also unlikely to purchase again from them. Now, the Honda dealer here is a small business, so you can’t say they are failing to provide good service quality because they are big company and things are harder to keep under control. So why companies have un-happy customers?
Reasons why companies have un–happy customers
There are a lot of reasons, and most are particular to each business. These are the first generic reasons that come to my mind:
- Big companies. When you have a small business with up to 10 employees is easier to control everything. As the business grows bigger, is harder to impose the same quality even if you do a good job at enforcing quality processes.
- There is a balance between price, quality and profits. I know it might sound strange, but sometimes providing the customer with the best service is not the best thing you could do. It’s actually a matter of positioning. Providing less quality for a better price is not bad as long as it targets people looking for cheaper alternatives.
- Not all employees are equal. No matter how good your recruitment and training process is, there will always be employees that don’t do very well.
- It’s actually not a good idea to make everybody happy. Of course you could try, but instead of trying to keep everybody just happy enough not to complain is not so good than having some raving fans telling about your business further.
- Customer needs are different even if they are purchasing the same product. Me for example, I’ve recently purchased a lightweight long batter hours laptop. My colleagues classified my laptop as having less processing power that they would want. Correct, my laptop would make them un-happy, but it makes me happy.
So ok, where un-happy customers really become a problem?
- When they expect something else, because you sold them quality or build a brand based on quality. If I buy a Mercedes and it’s crap I would be pissed off. If I buy a Renault and it’s not so great, well, nobody says their build quality is great.
- When you make sudden shifts in quality. For example I was very happy with my Honda motorcycle dealer here in Bucharest. Until they made things bad, while I was expecting the same services.
- When un-happy customers are so many that it affects your sales. Not much to say here, but if you don’t have enough customers telling other people you are doing a good job, then who is going to buy your products?
How do you know you have a quality problem?
There are many ways to find our you have a quality problem, both as an entrepreneur and as a business. As a business, if you manufacture a product you could find the number of returns. Number of complains per shipped products. Any other metric related to the quality. As an entrepreneur is a bit harder. You have to feel it.
