The Five Pillars of Customer Satisfaction were jointly developed and copyrighted in 1999 by John A. Boyd and Andrew John Boyd as they independently strove to resolve customer service problems. Subsequent publications, including this one, carry copyright dates of 1999 to 2001.
The original development of the Five Pillars of customer satisfaction was driven
by their need to satisfy customers and the lack of a paradigm which could be
universally applied to diverse situations and industries.
The Father and Son Team have used the Five Pillars to develop customer service
programs for large and small businesses in many industries, but no one outside
of the family has tested or challenged the model.
There is a strong connection between customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and business success. At the negative extreme, dissatisfied customer are disloyal and constantly seeking other vendors able to satisfy their needs.
Unfortunately, total customer satisfaction does not mean total customer loyalty. No one is dying to use their favorite undertaker and I'm not about to have another child because I love Pampers or Gerber baby food.
Satisfied customers who are not loyal may recommend your business but dissatisfied ones are three times more likely to report their complaints to family and friends. Recent work shows a direct increase in profit from customers who love your business and promote it and an ofsetting decline in profits from detractors who speak poorly of you.
Moreover, it is inevitable that most poorly run businesses end up hurting their most important customers. Pareto's rule tells us that 80% of sales volume is generated by 20% of customers. Hence, random failures of quality and customer service are most likely to happen to the best customers.
The only defense to protect the best customers is to be constantly on guard and strive for the highest possible customer satisfaction for all patrons. As you will see when you explore the Five Pillars of Customer Satisfaction, giving customers what they want is not easy. But on the other hand, if it were easy, every business would be a success and there would be no competitive advantage to excellent customer service.
Customer satisfaction is difficult because each of the Five Pillars is based on individual desires. Every person gets thirsty but there are many options i.e. water (regular or designer), milk (chocolate, skim or regular), tea (hot or cold, herbal or global), soda (diet or regular, cola or flavored) or alcoholic (beer, wine, port, rum etc.). The number of options is staggering and trying to satisfy everyone impossible. However, it is important that your offering be attractive to enough consumers.
It has been estimated that 80% of new products fail because the design of the product does not meet the needs of enough consumers. The strongest advice you can get on product design is to carefully listen to your customers. They will tell you what they really want - it is up to the business owner to consistently fill that need. Unfortunately for new business owners, it is experience that is the great teacher and over time successful business owners are able to find out what their customers want and equally important, what they don't want. One size or color will never satisfy everyone, so business owners must be prepared to customize their offering to meet the individual needs of patrons.
A good shirt laundry is prepared to clean and press shirts with no starch, light starch, medium starch or heavy starch; in boxes or on hangers, buttoned or unbuttoned, collars up or down; and with pressed sleeves or rounded sleeves. A good restaurant will offer meals with meat or no meat; fish and foul in an attempt to satisfy all tastes. No matter what your business, you must be prepared to listen to unusual requests and satisfy the customer when possible.
Academic researchers have studied the impact technology and innovation have on customer satisfaction but these are just aspects of the product as are design, features, complexity of use, post sales service, warranty and financing. When considering the need fulfilling property of a product, all aspects must be considered.
As covered in depth in our discussion of pricing strategy, it is impossible to separate the price and quality of an item. Consumers expect better quality to cost more and avoid very low prices out of fear of inferior goods.
Still at various times, most of us have accepted lower quality that we would have preferred as a compromise for lower price. Who wouldn't want the finest apartment, furniture or automobile, but most of us balance our desires with our ability to pay. Thus we often find ourselves willing to accept a lower quality (and price) alternative.
Since individuals have different needs, it is best where possible to offer a verity of products at different prices or to focus on the segment with the most profitable balance of quality and price.
Various academic researchers have studied the impact of quality and price on customer satisfaction, but as previously discussed, they are inseparable issues. It is impossible to compare the customer satisfaction derived from a $5 meal from Wendy's to a $50 meal from an elegant restaurant with full service and a fantastic view.
Some people will prefer the lower level of service and ambience in exchange for a low price. Some can afford to be pampered with excellent service and ambience on a daily basis. Others will balance the occasion with their budget and choose the balance of price and quality that is best for them.
Serving customers in a timely manner is difficult because customers are inconsistent and sometimes do not even know what they want.
The only reason I ever go to a fast food restaurant is the speed of service. Therefore, I get aggravated the second I walk in the door and see a line. Yet, the twenty people in line ahead of me are patiently waiting for what they think is a good value. At a fine restaurant, I will patiently wait 35 minutes for my entree if I have an attentive server and a steady flow of beverage, salad, bread and appetizer.
When I purchase a brand new car, I want delivery the same day. Others will wait patiently for weeks to get the color and accessory package they desire. In many communities, 3 day delivery for dry-cleaning is standard but some consumers need one hour delivery while others will leave their clothes for weeks.
Even worse than having customers with dramatically different needs is having customers who don't know what they want. Everybody says they want fast service, but if a meal were delivered to the table in an elegant restaurant minutes after it were ordered, the customers might feel rushed or believe that no special attention was taken in preparing the food.
Sooner or later, most business owners will lament that their customers don't even know what they want. Yet, the only way to find out is to carefully listen to them.
How much human interaction is appropriate is also determined by individual needs. Some people have nothing but time on their hands and would love to spend all day talking to a business owner. Others want no human interaction at all and prefer to deal with vending machines, ATM's and purchase online.
While most people desire an intermediate amount of human interaction, these extreme cases cause every business problems. Some people resent being told "have a nice day" in a mechanical fashion while others need human reassurance they are making a great choice. The QVC shopping channel provides human reassurance while most e-commerce transactions do not.
The best option for any business is to operate in a pleasant manner for the majority. You risk alienating people who prefer to deal with vending machines and you must be prepared to extract yourself from people using an inordinate amount of your time.
The complexity of human interaction will remain despite e-commerce. The firm that enhances the appearance of human interaction will conquer the market. The mechanism may be online open dialogue such as the QVC shopper channel or interaction with an AI chatterbot. However, 70% of e-commerce transactions might not be abandoned if their were assistance with the processing and assurance that the purchase process would be easy and safe.
A mechanism for conflict resolution must exist for every business that wants to succeed. For most small businesses, the initial complaint is most likely to go to the waiter, mechanic, plumber, carpenter, sales person or receptionist that screwed up the transaction in the first place. In an atmosphere of fear or with truly incompetent employees, the person will act as a gatekeeper defending their job and preventing management from taking corrective action by simply failing to pass the complaint to the boss.
Based on a five year history, one small business owner with a 60% market share in her industry plans on 1% of sales being used to resolve customer complaints. From experience, 1/3 of complaints are due to a manufacturer defect beyond her control, 1/3 are caused by human error by her employees and 1/3 are outright consumer fraud.
Unfortunately, it takes 3 to 4 weeks to determine where to classify errors and most consumers want instant (24 hour) complaint resolution. To her, it is worth $1 for every $100 of sales so she pays up right away. This has given her the best reputation in her local industry and in reality, that 1% is passed along to customers as a cost of doing business.
Remember, satisfied customers will recommend you but dissatisfied ones are three times more likely to slander you. Keep your customers happy, and you will succeed.
There is no sense in running the perfect customer satisfaction program without a promotional program to support the effort. The discussion above describes the Five Pillars of Customer Satisfaction and ignores other critical business practices which can also impact success.
To get the initial customers who will spread the word about how wonderful your firm is, there will have to be initial advertising. It is extremely difficult and expensive to get a first time customers for any business, whether it is e-commerce, click and mortar or brick and mortar. Advertising is necessary to get those first time customers; the Five Pillars will help you keep them.
Another important area is employee relations and training. If your employees are disgruntled, under trained or underpaid, they will never interact in a positive manner with your customers and all of your knowledge and good intentions are for nothing.
The Five Pillars of Customer Satisfaction are limited to developing loyal customers. They are not a magic bullet that kills all other poor business practices, but they do come close.