You have launched a new service on the market, but now what? Do you launch marketing fireworks and present your offer as a miracle weapon? Or do you prefer to explain its advantages and disadvantages in a sober manner?
The business plan has been drawn up and the sales targets are ambitious. Naturally, you are happy to have a full tailwind from the marketing department and would love to impose your own solution on the customer. But isn't it also detrimental to customer satisfaction if expectations are raised too high?
Satisfied existing customers ensure a steady stream of potential new customers through word-of-mouth advertising. We don't want to miss out on this effect, because real customer testimonials have a far greater effect on your turnover than your own marketing efforts. That's why you should know when you can lay it on thick when selling your services and when you should be convincing with more realistic marketing of your USPs.
When can we go all out in marketing?
To clarify this question, we need to consider two different effects:
1. Excessive customer expectations of a product/service lead to a drop in customer satisfaction due to disappointment after the purchase.
2. Placebo effect: Studies have shown that high customer expectations of a product/service increase the perceived quality of the same.
We are familiar with the placebo effect described above from soccer: fans tend to overlook their team's minor mistakes and weaknesses and often rate their team's performance better than neutral observers. As everywhere in life, positive thinking always improves the result achieved. In the After-Sales and with the Customer expectations is no different. In addition, greater expectation naturally also encourages people to buy.
Which strategy fits when?
With a view to customer satisfaction, we now need to check when effect 1 and effect 2 are more pronounced:
Scenario 1:
The customer cannot properly evaluate or understand the quality of the service, or there is no interest in it.
- In this case, the placebo effect is very effective. Expectations are rarely disappointed.
- You should therefore draw on the full potential in marketing.
Scenario 2:
The service requires a high degree of customer involvement, it is particularly important to the customer or you have clear, comprehensible requirements.
- Under no circumstances should you disappoint the customer here. The placebo effect does not work.
- Explain to the customer exactly what they can expect from you! Ideally, you should even deliver a little bit more than you promised!
Which after-sales services can be marketed aggressively?
We now need to clarify what happens with after-sales services. I won't consider repairs for the time being, as these don't usually have to be marketed. The customer will ask for them anyway.
- – Maintenance: It is difficult for the customer to identify the maintenance (preventive or predictive) to precisely quantify the reduced downtime and costs. It can roughly estimate how high the effect of the Maintenance is typical or can be in the best case. In individual cases, however, it becomes difficult. That's why you can step on the gas here in marketing.
- – Trainings: It is difficult to quantify or qualitatively assess success here. How can you measure exactly how successful a training course was? That's why you can really show off your marketing measures here too.
- – Consultations: The customer has a machine-oriented Consulting to increase the utilization or efficiency of the machine. Before he buys such a service, he wants to know exactly what results you want to achieve. You should not make too many promises with such a service.
- – Spare parts supply: In the worst case scenario, the machine stops or a planned shutdown for preventive maintenance is scheduled for the next day. Every minute of downtime costs a lot of money. Customer involvement is extremely high. It is also very easy to measure your promise to deliver to any point in Germany, Europe or the world within 24 hours. Beware of making a promise that you cannot keep.
- – Data-based services: Data-based services are still difficult for many customers to grasp. In most cases, however, they have a high level of involvement because they are new and exciting. The results of many of the services offered (benchmarking, increasing transparency, etc.) are also difficult to grasp directly or to attribute the effects singularly to the data-based service offered. An opportunity to fuel the placebo effect with a little tailwind and get the contract signed. Step on the gas!
"It may surprise you that we management consultants, of all people, have to be honest when marketing our services. After all, our reputation is sometimes a bit windy. In fact, the definition of clear objectives, deliverables and the strict implementation of these are the be-all and end-all in the consulting industry. If we don't meet them, our reputation suffers, which is crucial for winning new projects." - Dr. Simon Tonat
Keep this in mind when you launch a new service on the market. So that you always know how much fibbing is allowed.
