Product satisfaction matters before customer loyalty

About six months ago we had to replace our microwave due to a failed motor. We had it for almost four years at that time.

We ordered a replacement from the same brand.

The new microwave started to become possessed a couple of weeks ago.

Push a button and it will either work, emit a constant loud beep, turn on with no countdown, or any other number of random malfunctions. Not everytime though. Like a cranky toddler it would only freak out one in ten times.

The warranty department has been...

Lets just say as fun as you'd expect. From broken promises to "lost" emails that IT "found" it's been the typical low-quality customer service.

Even if they resolve this warranty, this is the last time we'll ever buy from this brand.

No matter how much they try to "engage" with us, mail us winback discounts, or use any "growth hacking" strategies we'll just ignore them.

The company failed the fundamental promise of the consumer:

When a customer buys your product they'd expect it to work for a reasonable amount of time. When it doesn't, the company should take care of the failure.

If your products fail at that promise, no amount of customer development or customer loyalty will matter.

Customer satisfaction comes before loyalty.

Even if you don't have customer service complaints for a product, it still could be a dud like our microwave. Look in your Product Reorders to find products with the least amount of customers reordering.

If those aren't new products, it's likely those are triggering customers to flee.

Directive: Satisfy the customer before worrying about loyalty.

Eric Davis

Market to your customer's timing

Figure out how long customers wait in-between purchases and you have a key component for your marketing timing. This is the basis of the Average Latency metric and Order Sequence Report in Repeat Customer Insights.

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Topics: Customer loyalty Customer behavior Product analysis

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