Marketing Intelligence

Learning Outcomes 4, criteria 4.1 and 4.2

(A) Assessing customer satisfaction is a task that can benefit most companies, as precious and useful data about consumer attitudes can be gained through this typical marketer endeavour. Data on customer opinion relates to satisfaction experienced by the purchase of the product, here cheese sold by the Cheese company. The company can obtain information about whether its customers are happy or, as can be the case, dissatisfied. Various methods exist to evaluate customer satisfaction:

• Customer Complaints System/Phone line:

The cheese company can open a free customer helpline, making sure that the phone number is displayed clearly on the product package, or on leaflets, cards, etc accompanying each purchase. Through careful wording, customers can be made to feel free to express satisfaction or make complaints. E.g.:" Cheese Company is committed to give you full satisfaction through our high-quality and local products. However, should you have any queries or complaints, we will be glad to help you at the 091 XXXXXX". This method, because it allows direct and live contact between the company and its customers, provides valuable information about consumer attitude. Customers may also appreciate to have their say even after purchasing and consuming cheese sold by the company. Complaints however need to be handled effectively. This means, whether they are treated directly by the company or through a call centre, staff receiving the complaints should be well-trained; the process should be customer friendly and the company's response immediate. For the company, complaints can be positive if they help improve quality or service, even if setting up and maintaining a complaints system represents a cost.

The Cheese Company already has its own popular website, which it can also use to assess customer satisfaction. This can be done simply by including in the website menu a platform inviting website visitors to express their opinion. Some customers may actually appreciate the relative anonymity of a website to give truthful and honest information, providing Cheese Company with valuable information, and maybe useful suggestions. As with the phone line option, the website feedback service should be user-friendly and treat queries/complaints effectively. With the ever-increasing use of the internet, this might be a better and cheaper option than the setting up of a new phone service.

• Surveys:

Customer feedback can be gathered by surveying a group or sample of clients. This can be done through a range of means to get in touch with customers: direct handing of questionnaires in sales outlet, In person interview, Telephone, Post, Online survey through the company's website or Direct mail interview. The effectiveness of the survey option depends on the way it is conducted, choice of sample, interpretation, etc. This method is also more time-consuming than previously mentioned technique.

• Mystery Shoppers:

For intelligence on its customers, Cheese Company can opt to go undercover, an effective way to learn about customer satisfaction. This involves hiring the services of a mystery shopper, who, by getting into the shoes of a Cheese Company customer, lives the same experience and can therefore provide an unbiased measurement of customer satisfation.This technique gives a particularly useful insight of certain aspects of shopping at Cheese Company, such as customer service, condition in which the product ends in the hands of the customer. The mystery shopper, should be an experienced professional so as to effectively relay relevant information back to the Cheese Company. If done in a professional way, the results of a mystery shopper's work for the Cheese Company could help the company to identify improvements to be made for example in shop display so as to be more attractive to customers. By thus increasing its awareness of customers needs, the Cheese Company can make targeted and accurate improvements.

• Lost customer analysis:

It is said that it takes 6 months to win a new customer and 6 seconds to lose one(J. Brendan O’Reilly, Chief Executive Sales Placement Ltd, Fellow of The Marketing Institute of Ireland). Getting sales is a costly exercise, but losing customers is even more expensive.

According to Professor Philip Kotler, keeping and growing customers are primary today. A lost customer represents the loss of the next sale as well as the loss of future profits on that customer’s lifetime purchases. The company also incurs the cost of replacing lost customers, which is five times the cost of keeping them happy.