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                              Wow: The Ultimate

                               Guest Experience



                             What you leave behind is not what is
                           engraved in stone monuments, but what is
                                woven into the lives of others.
                                         PERICLES



                             As suggested in Chapter 6, customer satisfac-
                             tion is not enough to ensure business success.
                       |Recent research has shown that customers who
                     are only “satisfied” with a company’s service are far less
                     likely than customers who are “extremely satisfied” to
                     remain loyal to that business. Specifically, this literature
                     found that customers who reported they were “ex-
                     tremely satisfied” with a business were two and one-half
                     times more likely to make future purchases from that
                     company when compared to customers who rated their
                     overall satisfaction as “average.” But what does it take to
                     move customers from the satisfied to highly satisfied
                     range?
                        Like many other business consultants, Jeanette
                     McMurtry, chief strategy officer for The Hanson Group,
                     believes that extremely satisfied customers emerge
                     through memorable and emotional connections forged
                     between them and a business. Jeanette points out, “This




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