A customer calling for the repair service may switch to some other company if he is put on hold for a long time or even treated rudely. Even if the technical quality of that firm is superior, the firm may not get a chance to prove themselves in front of the customer.
When the customer has had many interactions with firm, each encounter will be important as it will create a combined image of that firm. Many positive experiences will give an image of High Quality and many negative experiences will represent a bad image. Combination of positive and negative interactions will leave the customer confused about the Quality.
It is suggested that not all encounters are equally important in building long-term relations. For every organization, certain encounters can act as a key to customer satisfaction. For example: for MARRIOT hotels, it is the early encounters that are important. In a hospital context, a study of patients revealed that encounters with the nursing staff were more important in predicting the customer satisfaction.
As it is rightly said “one bad apple can ruin the whole basket of apples.” The same applies in this too; one negative encounter can drive the customer away, no matter how many encounters had taken place in the past. So a firm has to give a lot of importance to such encounters.
“A customer who has been using a bank for nearly 15 years is quite happy with the service. He has a huge deposit and many accounts. One fine morning, when he comes out of the bank the watch man asks Rs. 10 for parking charges of his car. He goes inside the bank and informs the clerk at the counter, who directs him to the officer. The officer directs him to the Manager, who says he is helpless as this is a new policy of the bank. The customer who was so happy with the bank services decides to close all his accounts – “Some encounters can be very Critical”.
5 Comments