It's no secret many companies in retailing and elsewhere have a perception of performance that bears little resemblance to the views of consumers.
We recently came across a reference on Forrester Research's Marketing Blog about research conducted by Cindy Commander of Forrester's CMO Group which found that 80 percent of companies reported providing a superior customer experience. When consumers were asked the same question, only eight percent saw it the same way.
So why such a discrepancy between what customers and companies think? And how can this situated be corrected?
There are a number of obvious factors to explain the number of companies without a clue.
Number one on our random (and clearly incomplete) list is that company practices rarely match the rhetoric of top executives. Some fail to ask consumers for their opinion or seek answers to those issues most important to shoppers.
Some businesses are guilty of creating an organizational focus on delivering on management's objectives and assuming a positive customer experience will follow.
There is also the tried and truly failed practice of soliciting consumers' opinions and promptly acting on the adages: "Don't just do something, sit there" or "Just ignore it and it will go away."
A personal case in point was an experience with a regional supermarket chain store where first a department manager (week one) and then a store manager (week four) received a request for a specific natural food item (with a personal guarantee that a minimum of five units would be moved per week). The result: no action was taken by the store. We didn't complain but were sure to find an alternative source for the item.
A short period of time after this experience we ventured onto the company's website. We (along with everyone else) were encouraged to provide feedback and send requests to the company. Within 24 hours, we received an email confirming receipt of our request along with an assurance it would be passed to the appropriate person at headquarters. A few years later and we are happy (truly) to say the local health food store proprietor looks forward to our weekly purchases while the chain in question has yet to respond with any answer whatsoever.
Another trap many fall into is evaluating performance against those of peers in the same category. The fact that others may offer an unsatisfying experience is not taken into consideration as long as performance meets or exceeds that of those considered direct competitors.
Discussion Question: How do you explain the disparity between how companies view the customer experience versus consumers' opinion on the same subject? What understandings are key to improving the consumer experience at retail? Conversely, does it make sense to always give consumers what they want?