Consumers' perception of how a business is doing

[orion_joel]

I think Vangogh, we are both correct in what we have said. I was more so saying that customers impressions are often wrong, in respect to the topic of what more less advertising means in terms of the current financial climate. Which is really something that is not controlled really by what a customer thinks or not. For example if a company stops advertising because they are booked for months in advance, then a customer stops seeing the advertising and thinks they must be not doing well and cannot afford to advertise, then this impression is wrong, The customers impression is irrelevant.

Where you are talking about customer service, and in this respect you are right, the customers impression makes a big difference to the customer. And in this case perception is absolutely everything.

[vangogh]

I agree with most of what you're saying though I want to rephrase it a bit. I wouldn't say a customer's impression is wrong. I'd say a customers impression of a business may not accurately reflect that business. Maybe it's just semantics, but I'm not sure an impression can really be right or wrong. It just is.

Your advertising example is a good one. The obvious thought is the lack of advertising means a lack of success, when in truth it could mean too much success.

The customers impression is irrelevant.

This I'll disagree with. I don't think a customer's impression is ever irrelevant. It doesn't matter whether or not you've stopped advertising because you have too many customers at the moment. If the customer's impression is you aren't doing well enough to afford advertising then they aren't going to do any business with you in the future when you do want customers unless you can change that impression. The customer's perception is everything in business.

Ultimately everything you sell is based not on who you are, but on who the customer thinks you are. In the long run and on a mass scale the two will eventually be the same or very close, though in the short run and in specific cases they may never be the same.

[jrobconsult]

The study results are interesting and have plenty of truth. During a bad economy business cut expenses especially advertising. Smart business owners would spend the same or more. They may need to rearrange their advertising dollars, but it is a necessary part of being a successful small business.

[vangogh]

Yep. If you've done a good job during the better economy and have your finances in order you generally would do well to spend more during a bad economy since prices are down and opportunities are there to be had.

[GBlack]

I agree with Vangogh's point. In Seth Godin's book, All Marketers Are Liars. he talks about how Amazon did such a great job of establishing themselves as #1 at customer service that their regular customers willingly ignore mistakes and excuse them as one-offs. The mistake is easily forgotten because Amazon has done such a great job of establishing their story as a customer service giant.

[Dan Furman]

I agree with Vangogh's point. In Seth Godin's book, All Marketers Are Liars. he talks about how Amazon did such a great job of establishing themselves as #1 at customer service that their regular customers willingly ignore mistakes and excuse them as one-offs. The mistake is easily forgotten because Amazon has done such a great job of establishing their story as a customer service giant.

The thing with Amazon also, though, is they *do* it. I'm a long time customer, with hundreds of orders. Stuff is regularly received early, things are almost always right, etc. I can count negative experiences on one hand, and still be able to snap my fingers.

[vangogh]

Same here with Amazon. Sure they make the occasional mistake, but overall they deliver better than I expect and so I'm a loyal customer. They create a great perception of their business by delivering on that perception.

[eborg9]

Got to jump in...I fricken' love Amazon. I'm a weekly customer.
I remember when they first launched with just books, and they were flooding the national radio stations every 10 minutes.
i am very proud of them, and am also very loyal.

[Ad-Vice_Man]

Meeting expectations is one thing exceeding them is another... I'll give you an example. When I first started out, I used Godaddy for hosting, e-mail and to purchase my domain name. Given the size of the company(perceived at any rate), the low price and the DIY nature of it all i imagined customer service would have to be near non-existant. Imagine my surprise when a week or two after my site was up and running I received a phone call from godaddy welcoming me to the service, reviewing my account and pointing out that I had overbought from them and they ultimately put me into a more appropriate and less expensive service.

I was floored.

[vangogh]

Oh yeah, exceeding expectations is always better than meeting them. I only use GoDaddy to regsiter domains, but they do a good job with them.

For any company all it takes is a little extra to exceed expectations. How hard was it for GoDaddy to call you? How much good will did that one call generate. Unless they screw up royally you're probably a customer for life. All for the price of a phone call and a few minutes of time.