Customer Delight: Increasing Brand Awareness Essay Example

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Some experts argue that simply having satisfied customers is insufficient; there needs to be highly satisfied customers in order to foster customer loyalty. The importance of building customer loyalty is no longer optional for businesses, as it is the sole method for establishing sustainable competitive advantage. Creating loyalty with important customers is now a fundamental marketing objective for all industries that serve business customers. The strategic necessities for developing a devoted customer base are as follows:

• Focus on key customers Proactively generate high level of customer satisfaction with every interaction
• Anticipate customer needs and respond to them before the competition does
• Build closer ties with customers
• Create a value perception.

Recognizing customer satisfaction as crucial for fostering loyalty, firms emphasize the measurement of customer satisfaction. When customers are highly satisfied, they exhibit stronger allegiance to the firm and are less likely to be influenced by competitors. Additionally, satisfied customers show a greater propensity to repurchase, recommend products or services, and contribute to the overall profitability of the firm.

Customer loyalty is characterized by long-term purchasing behavior from a firm. Satisfied customers are more likely to make repeated purchases and potentially become loyal patrons. While customer satisfaction impacts the likelihood of recommending a departmental store and making future purchases, it does not directly dictate loyalty. Thus, sole satisfaction does not assure loyalty.

Encouraging customer satisfaction is vital for building store loyalty and promoting recommendations and

repurchases. When customers recommend a department store, it fosters re-patronage and loyalty towards that specific store. Therefore, the key to cultivating loyalty lies in urging customers to endorse the store to others. Moreover, satisfied customers with a positive attitude are more likely to recommend a department store. Companies that effectively satisfy their customers have an outstanding opportunity to cultivate long-term loyal customers who will continue making purchases over time. To achieve this success, it is crucial to surpass customer expectations through delivering products or services with Customer Delight.

Customer delight is when a company surpasses a customer's expectations and delivers higher quality than expected, resulting in customer satisfaction. Delighting customers is only possible if their needs are first satisfied. A delighted customer brings more value to a company and helps it compete against its rivals. They perceive a significant gap between value and cost. Nowadays, customers prioritize service and quality, and a delighted customer can greatly benefit a company.

The distinction between Customer Satisfaction and Customer Delight lies in the importance of managing product quality. While satisfying the customer is not enough, delighting the customer means taking pleasure in their experience. Satisfaction refers to the agreement between a person and their decision to purchase a product, whereas delight brings a different meaning. In summary, a delighted customer is more likely to remain loyal to an organization compared to those who are merely satisfied. The reason for delighting the customer is that it is the most crucial factor to consider.

A delighted customer has the potential to remain loyal, make repeated purchases, and spread positive word-of-mouth. In fact, a delighted customer can significantly increase the profitability

of a business over the course of their lifetime. On the other hand, acquiring a new customer can cost five times more than retaining a pleased one. So, how does a business ensure customer delight? The most successful companies have discovered a formula that surpasses simply offering a good product or service. They focus on providing delight by understanding their customers' specific interests, anticipating their needs, exceeding expectations, and ensuring that every interaction and aspect of the relationship is enjoyable - or even better, exhilarating.

The importance of customer delight lies in its significance for marketing. Every company aims to satisfy and delight the customer in order to remain in the market and earn profits. By fulfilling customer needs and going beyond expectations, companies can gain the loyalty of their customers. Furthermore, the ability to attract more customers and win customers from competitors is beneficial for the management.

Each company has its own specific guidelines and elements in place to guarantee customer satisfaction. The importance of prioritizing customer delight cannot be understated, as it is highly valuable for the company. The company's objective is to satisfy customers by providing top-notch products, fostering customer loyalty, and meeting their expectations. The management team plays a crucial part in upholding the company's reputation in the market and maintaining a loyal customer base. Failing to effectively compete with competitors puts the risk of losing customers at stake.

Having a solid customer base and high levels of customer satisfaction are crucial for achieving a competitive advantage, strong work culture, and exceptional customer value. Expanding the customer base benefits both management and customers. Various companies have different strategies to attain

market profitability, but fostering long-term commitment relies on customer loyalty.

The act of customers repeatedly purchasing their current brand, rather than opting for a competitor brand, is referred to as loyalty behavior or customer retention. Loyalty attitudes encompass the judgments and emotions associated with repeat purchases of your product, service, brand, or company. In certain situations, customers may display loyalty behavior despite lacking loyalty attitudes, such as in monopolistic markets. Conversely, some customers may possess loyalty attitudes without exhibiting much loyalty behavior, like infrequent buyers who are extremely loyal to a specific brand.

It is important to thoroughly analyze loyalty behavior and attitudes due to the value inherent in each definition. The behavior definition proves valuable as it directly pertains to sales and market share. The measurement of loyalty behavior involves examining customers' sales transactions, which in turn reveals customer retention rates and customer defection rates across different time intervals. By tracking the transactions of individual customers over time, their repeat purchases and "lifetime value" can be determined. Subsequently, this lifetime value is connected to demographic information and utilized in the creation of marketing strategies that specifically target high value customers.

Loyalty attitudes are a more subjective measure compared to behavior as individuals may feel a certain way but act differently. Various loyalty attitude groups, including "new arrivals," "repeat buyers," "advocates," and "loyalists," are used to categorize customers based on their gradual affiliation with the company. Customer surveys are employed to assess loyalty attitudes. However, there is no universally agreed-upon set of questions or a definitive benchmark for a "good" score. Instead, an effective process is required to generate valuable information.

Tracking customers' loyalty attitudes

over time can provide valuable insights into the company's performance and identify areas of improvement or decline. By analyzing this trend information, businesses can determine which efforts to enhance customer loyalty are effective. Building customer loyalty is highly advantageous, except when it involves drastic price reductions or significant promotional giveaways that reduce profits. Loyalty plays a pivotal role in market share, as each customer who switches from one brand to another affects the market share of both brands involved.

In most markets, there is a significant amount of brand switching or "churn". Churn represents potential customers that competitors actively pursue. Established repeat customers typically bring in higher profit margins as they require less customer care, display lower price sensitivity, and need fewer advertising and promotional incentives. Additionally, they often refer their family and friends to your brand. Therefore, it is crucial to focus on moving customers from satisfaction to loyalty, as loyalty is the outcome of very high satisfaction. Improving satisfaction should be a priority.

When managing a loyalty program, it is crucial to consider loyalty attitudes as part of customer satisfaction. Encouraging positive customer attitudes is key to promoting loyal behavior. Rather than trying to directly improve loyalty behavior, it is more effective to focus on enhancing factors that contribute to customer satisfaction. This approach will ultimately lead to the desired loyal behavior. Merely being "results oriented" will not lead to improved loyalty.

Loyalty behavior is a result, an outcome, a metric. Similar to a high jumper aiming to clear the bar at seven feet, focusing solely on the desired result doesn't lead to success. Improvement can only be achieved through training and practice,

allowing the high jumper to raise the bar. Similarly, loyalty can be enhanced by addressing the underlying factors that contribute to customer satisfaction. Satisfaction and loyalty have a complex relationship, with satisfaction being the initial stage in the customer-company relationship.

To stand out from competitors, a company must transition customers from being satisfied to being loyal. This shift is measured through a loyalty model that takes into account both behavioral and psychological factors. The resulting loyalty index is used to categorize customers into market segments according to their current relationship with the company. Customers are grouped based on their level of satisfaction and comfort in their relationship with the company.

These findings hold significant value for the company as they provide awareness regarding customers who may leave. The company can also create a comparable index to identify prospective customers. This index categorizes customers according to their probability of switching from their current company to another. Once again, this is a crucial strategic consideration for the company as it can guide marketing and advertising resource allocation to convert potential customers into actual customers.

HCL Info systems Ltd is a prominent company in the Indian IT market, having been established in 1976. With over 30 years of experience, HCL has successfully provided solutions to various industries in India. The company has consistently introduced innovative technologies and solutions, utilizing its strong customer relationships and expertise. HCL Infosystems Ltd takes pride in offering advanced technology at competitive prices while providing exceptional service and support infrastructure.

HCL is currently the leading company in India for information enabling. It offers a variety of products, sales, and support services to cater to

different customer requirements. These customers consist of large multi-location enterprises, small/medium enterprises, small offices, and homes. Furthermore, HCL possesses the largest distribution and retail network in India. Additionally, it collaborates with renowned global ICT brands like Nokia, Apple, Casio,
Kodak,
Toshiba,
Bull,
Ericsson,
Cisco,
Microsoft,
Konica Minolta,
and others to provide an assortment of Digital Lifestyle products.

During my 5-week sales project, I gained valuable experience in the market and learned about the reality of sales. As a project trainee, my responsibilities included visiting clients from various industries such as International schools, Engineering Colleges, Pharmacy Colleges, MBA Colleges, Multi Specialty Hospitals, and Software Companies. By interacting with the clients, I gathered information about their product requirements. Additionally, I conducted demonstrations to showcase the range of products offered by HCL Infosystems. The primary objective of my role was to generate sales leads for the company.

Customers of HCL Infosystems Ltd have expressed their dissatisfaction with the service quality, distribution channel, and credit facility offered by the company. This has led to a decrease in their purchasing of HCL Infosystems Ltd's laptops, desktops, and other products. For example, during 1993-1994, Times of India, a customer of HCL Infosystems Ltd, used their products across India.

There have been service requirements for certain products which were not adequately addressed by the team at HCL Infosystems Ltd. As a result, Times of India is currently not using HCL Infosystems Ltd products. In Sagar society, Hyderabad, loyal customers of HCL Infosystems Ltd purchased some HCL Laptops, but these laptops experienced service issues. They handed over 15 laptops with their accompanying bags and chargers to the HCL service centre. However, the HCL service centre team only returned the laptops, stating

that they had only accepted the laptops from them.

Despite the team from HCL Infosystems Ltd being unable to resolve the issue, a loyal customer was lost. However, in spite of this setback, the customer is willing to place another order with HCL under the condition that they address the service problem first. SEW Infrastructure Hyderabad had ordered laptops from HCL and paid in full upfront, expecting delivery within one week. The executive from HCL had promised to meet this deadline but after six weeks, the laptops were still not delivered. Consequently, SEW Infrastructure Hyderabad became extremely dissatisfied and decided to blacklist HCL.

Ltd states that they will no longer buy any products from HCL Infosystems Ltd. RVR College of Engineering Hyderabad experienced service issues that were not adequately resolved by HCL Infosystems Ltd after purchasing HCL Desktops. As a result, they decided to cease making purchase decisions in favor of HCL Infosystems Ltd. However, after visiting the RVR campus and having discussions, they were convinced and agreed to place an order for 60 desktops out of the required 120. They expressed that if they are satisfied this time, they will consider making future purchase decisions in favor of HCL Infosystems Ltd.

The Joginpally B. R. College of Engineering in Hyderabad temporarily stopped purchasing from HCL Infosystems Ltd because of service issues. However, during a campus visit, they discovered new Heads of Department (HOD), including Mr. Ajay Kumar as the HOD for Computer Science Engineering (CSE). Mr. Kumar took the initiative to invite HCL to sponsor an event at the college in order to improve communication between the college management and HCL Infosystems Ltd.

This resulted in a series of discussions regarding the purchase of 600 desktops after the event. It is important to note that there were both dissatisfied and satisfied customers.

Customers were happy with the affordable prices of HCL Infosystems Ltd products and the company's efficient handling of service issues. They also appreciated the summer projects offered to B-Schools students. Geethanjali College of Engineering and Technology in Hyderabad is one example of a satisfied customer. Despite facing some service problems with HCL Infosystems Ltd desktops, the company quickly resolved the issues, resulting in their satisfaction. Additionally, they were pleased with the quoted price. Another satisfied customer is CMR Group of Institution in Hyderabad.

The price offered to this group of Institution is highly competitive and service issues are also properly and promptly addressed. The main reason for this is that they have multiple institutions under one umbrella and they purchase a significant number of HCL Desktops every year. Malla reddu group of Institutions Hyderabad: The price offered to this group of Institution is highly competitive and service issues are also properly and promptly addressed. The main reason for this is that they have multiple institutions under one umbrella and they purchase a significant number of HCL Desktops every year.

Customers have certain expectations when they purchase a product or service. If these expectations are not met, customers become dissatisfied; however, if their expectations are exceeded, they become satisfied. To thrive in today's competitive business landscape and generate profits, companies must retain customers and gain their loyalty. This can be achieved by effective communication, building trust with stakeholders, and proactively embracing change. By doing so, both the

company and its customers will benefit.

Relationship marketing appears to be popular as companies now have more effective ways of understanding and responding to customers’ needs and preferences. This enables them to create more significant connections with their customers than ever before.