Managing Customer Perception

As we have discussed earlier, customer perception is highly subjective and the key to control it is by controlling the MOMENT OF TRUTHS.

So how do we do so?
Simple, we have to ensure that we delight them by meeting their expectations and aiming to exceed it.

This can be done by:
1) Having a corporate service culture which involves all staff to put customers first
2) Training front line staff as they will be your key players in the Moment of Truth
3) Gathering Feedbacks and responding actively (Listen and react appropriately)
4) Gathering Market Intelligence to recognize trends, needs and wants of customers
5) Internal Marketing-Selection of staff who will be dedicated
6) Understanding how customers think/feel and responding in the best way possible (empathy)

Managing Customer Perception is like playing a psychological game. You may think that you had done a good service by promptly informing the customers of rules that they should not break such as dress code but it may not be the case. The customer may in fact think that you were just ignorant and do not want to bend the rule for them.

Let me share with you a story which my tutor told me in one of her classes,

There was a very hardworking shoe shop salesman, when there are no customers, he will go to the store room to check on the inventory. One day, there was a customer who walks in and wanted to buy a pair of shoe from the shop. She asks the hardworking salesman if he is able to get her a pair of shoes of her size. Since the salesman did regular stock taking, he knows that the size that she wants is currently not available. Therefore, he informed the customer of the sad news IMMEDIATELY, WIHOUT going back to the store room to check. The customer then went to another store which sells an almost identical shoe. The customer went in and asks the salesman if he has a shoe of her size for her. The salesman was lazy and did not do stock taking as regular as the hardworking salesman. So he went to the store room and went searching for the shoe for 15 MINUTES! He came back to the customer and inform her that the shoe of her size not available.

Which salesman appear more hardworking to the customer?
The Lazy salesman.

So you see, no matter how hard you work, sometimes its only 1 MOMENT that matters!
Thus, you only need to manage that 1 MOMENT to make the BEST impression.