Company News
Satisfaction Guarantee…A Pledge, A Promise
by DW Green — October 28, 2010
I’m passionate about product and service guarantees. Offering a satisfaction guarantee seems pretty basic to me, though many retailers do not embrace them. As you know, a guarantee is a promise or assurance that a company will stand behind the quality of the products it sells or the services it performs. Guarantees build trust and loyalty with consumers. In a sense, a guarantee is a company’s commitment to the wellbeing of its customers. Wow, what an intriguing approach to serving the customer; imagine a conscious intention by company leaders to enhance the wellbeing of their customers
5 Reasons Why A Guarantee Works
1. It pushes the entire company to focus on the customer’s definition of good products/service, not an executive’s assumption.
2. It sets clear performance standards, which boosts employee performance and morale.
3. It generates reliable data (through payouts) when performance is poor.
4. It forces an organization to examine its entire service-delivery system for possible failure points.
5. It builds customer loyalty, sales and market share.
So what makes a good guarantee? It is: unconditional, easy to understand and communicate, meaningful, easy and painless to invoke, and easy and quick to collect on.
Cheating. Fear of customers cheating is a big hurdle for some when considering whether or not to offer guarantees. Sure, there will be cheats—the handful of customers who take advantage of a guarantee to get something for nothing. What they cost the company amounts to very little compared to the benefits derived from a strong guarantee. Too often, management worries about the 1% of people who might cheat the company instead of the 99% who don’t.
Do you offer product and service guarantees to your customers? If you don’t, maybe you should consider one. The holiday season is a great time to introduce a guarantee or reinforce the one(s) that you have.
Filed Under: Company News
