In this 2021, are you focusing on meeting the Needs of your customers or are you improving to serve at the level of their Expectations? Great companies go beyond Needs and Expectations to Perceptions of customers. To bring that Perception in the minds of customers, it could be a “word” on your packaging.
Walmart works on customer perception here by adding “organic” on the native toothbrushes, many decades after Intel invented a simple sticker to change the PC industry on the highly successful “Intel Inside” campaign.
In a Harvard Business Review piece, I explained that the “Intel Inside” sticker does demonstrate that innovators could come from any angle, beyond coding and broad technology. The marketing or brand manager who invented that sticker contributed immensely to Intel success.
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Look for little things which can shape your customer Perception. Find your “organic” word. Find your “inside” word. Simply, find ways to create a new basis of competition in your business through perception.
Do what Elon Musk does by continually making Tesla “uncatchable” through the perception he has put in the electric vehicle (EV) business. Others are building EVs to meet market needs, Elon keeps changing the goal post by making it clear that Tesla software can change daily, and you need a subscription to get them.
In other words, there is nothing to benchmark with as Tesla continues to “build” the car through software updates even as you drive them. Yes, even the users do not know the new capabilities which they cars can deliver by next month!
LinkedIn Feed Comment
Yes, customer perception is key for business growth. Customer perception is immensely dependent on meeting and surpassing customer expectations.
Customer interactions are key to meeting customer expectations. Business leaders should sometimes act like customers in order to understand what the current customer perception is and how same can be improved.
For instance, a Bank MD should sometimes use regular ATM machines ?
A lot of businesses are a far cry from having great customer perception because they don’t even know their customers and do not meet their expectations.
Tesla is the World’s Best Software & Services Company in Automobile Sector
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