How happy are your customers with your service and product? What was their expectation in terms of service provided? What is the relationship between these two?
The answer lies in understanding how customer satisfaction affects brand perception. These key elements that will shape your growth strategy and business plan.
This article will highlight the meaning of customer satisfaction and brand perception. It will also highlight the relationship between these two using various concepts.
What is Customer Satisfaction?
Customer satisfaction is a metric measure used to quantify customer happiness when they purchase a product or service. Customer satisfaction also entails the general experience relating to the purchase. This could be before, during, and after the purchase.
Customer satisfaction takes more than the quality of the product or service into account. It also measures elements that include the following:
The availability of the products
The procedure leading up to the purchase
The experience after purchase
Response time and service after purchase.
A customer satisfaction survey is important because it allows you to improve your services, solve problems, and understand how to improve your products.
Ultimately, it helps in building brand loyalty. Customer satisfaction in a digital world also affects brand perception.
What is Brand Perception?
Brand perception for a company is what the community of consumers believes about a product or service and how they feel about the company.
The interesting thing about brand perception is that it is customer-dependent, not company-dependent. So, brand perception is how the consumers feel about your brand.
It is not the same as what you want them to feel. In some positive cases, what customers feel (brand perception) aligns with what a company tries to portray.
The interesting factor about Brand perception is that while it is measurable or gauged, it is not based on hard facts. Brand perception can often result from emotions, feelings, and expectations.
Hence, brand perception can be affected by social influences or events. For instance, the Dangote brand has a perception of popularity and wide range acceptance.
Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Brand Perception
It is safe to say that customer service and satisfaction greatly influence brand perception. This situation is especially true for new customers enjoying your services.
On the other hand, brand perception tends to determine the level of customer satisfaction for a loyal customer. It might not seem significant but these relationships affect customers.
Now that we have an idea of what customer satisfaction and brand perception entails. It is important to understand how the two concepts affect brand image and identity.
We will discuss the relationship using elements of brand growth and business expansion to show the relationship.
Let’s take a look at the connection that exists between these two concepts using the following:
Customer Feedback and Perception Survey
One key relationship between customer satisfaction and brand perception is that they are measurable. It is quite important to invest in understanding the level of customer satisfaction when you provide services.
You can also get a measure of what customers feel about your brand by taking surveys. These surveys help to realize the feelings of consumers and clients about your brand.
With the right questions, you can simultaneously engage in customer feedback and perception surveys. Here are the components of the two concepts:
Customer Feedback
It is necessary to ask questions that highlight customer satisfaction after a purchase or service. The feedback should show that your brand is interested in how customer feel which is also a part of brand perception.
Brand Perception Surveys
Ask questions that show your customers' feelings, either good or bad. Make options available for consumers to describe their perception fully.
Open-ended questions make it easier to speak about how they feel. Some examples include:
How does this brand make you feel?
Would you recommend this brand to a friend? Why?
How likely are you to recommend this brand?
Describe your attachment level to this brand
Customer feedback should be after a confirmed sale or purchase of services. While brand perception survey can always be quarterly to see the update on brand reputation.
Customer Retention and Brand Loyalty
The relationship between customer satisfaction and brand perception is also in level of brand loyalty and customer loyalty.
86% of loyal customers admit that they will recommend a brand to others. This loyalty is only possible when there is a correlation between brand perception and customer satisfaction.
If customers perceive your brand as one that offers excellent services. This will increase their service expectations. When you meet those expectations, they enjoy customer satisfaction.
The mere fact that they get to enjoy what they expect helps them remain loyal.
Customers Experience
How a customer will describe the experience with a brand largely depends on the brand image and perception. A brand with good brand perception often enjoys the benefits of this image when dealing with customers.
A research shows that 77% of business leaders understand that personalized experience fosters loyalty. When there is genuine loyalty, the customer remains glued to the brand.
75% of customers admit doing business again with a brand that makes a mistake in customer service. So, when the brand perception is good, an average customer experience is enough for customer satisfaction.
On the other hand, when the brand perception is not at its best, great customer service might be tagged as an average customer experience. Hence, it is important that a brand do all it can to improve its brand reception while also offering excellent customer service.
However, a company should learn to tread carefully when navigating the relationship between these concepts regarding customer experience.
When the brand perception is placed on a pedestal, it gives the idea that the brand is perfect and flawless. A minor error might have the biggest impact and disappointment when you build a brand image of perfection.
So, it is important to develop a balanced brand perception.