Product Quality & Satisfaction

Those that agree that customer satisfaction plays a vital role in long term company viability often try to pinpoint what it is that helps improve that satisfaction. There have been some outspoken individuals that claim that product quality is the secret to long term success in business, using the tools at your disposal to create a relationship with your customers. You see a need, you try to fill that need, the customer is then satisfied and ready and increases their purchase power.

Yet research has found that this may not be the case. In fact, they have found that improved product quality did lead to increased revenue, even if it leads to an increase in customer satisfaction (which it may not do either).

Changes May Be Meaningless – The first idea is that an increase in purchasing may not be directly related to any increase in customer satisfaction. Changes may occur in groupings, for example – scores of 4 to7 may have the same expected purchasing, while 7 to 10 may have their own expected purchase, etc. Satisfaction Changes in the Wrong Group – It’s also possible that the changes are occurring within a group of customers that are unlikely to be purchasing more.

The changes need to be seen within the group that is likely to make a purchase. Service Plays a Role – Ask most people about their “bad” experiences and low satisfaction and they will very often pinpoint a service cause, not a product cause. While people do want products that meet their needs, their satisfaction is often based considerably on the people that sell to them, and how pleasant they found their services.

Not Locating a Connection Between Purchasing and Satisfaction – For many products, the perceived quality difference between two products may be based on more than simply quality. Price, for example, may make something seem equal in terms of the value it brings the consumer, even if the consumers themselves admit to one product being of higher quality. All things need to be equal for improved quality to make a difference, and things are not all equal.

Does that make improving the product quality unimportant? Not at all. It simply means that the measurements seen in customer satisfaction surveys after the product has been improved may not yield results that indicate a future increase of revenue.

There are other factors at play.