How Rubbermaid Uses IT to Organize Their Business and Improve Customer Satisfaction

Customer Satisfaction is a Strategic Asset

The American Customer Happiness Index states that maximizing customer happiness is a strategic corporate asset. The key to success is optimization; while satisfaction shouldn’t be maximized, it also shouldn’t be ignored. Businesses succeed when they provide quality, value, and efficient complaint management while also exceeding customer expectations for satisfaction. The primary focus should then be on managing consumer expectations and optimizing firm resources.

Since there is a complex—and ultimately unfavorable—relationship between satisfaction and market share, it is crucial to comprehend this customer satisfaction optimization. In other words, whereas market-share expansion in smaller businesses is driven by high and rising customer satisfaction, maintaining high satisfaction as the market share grows becomes more challenging. This is because having a high level of customer satisfaction is more challenging when you have a higher market share, which often entails a more diversified client base and a wider range of customer behaviors.

Understand What Customers Expect

What kinds of expectations do customers make in light of their interactions with businesses? Let’s begin by debunking the myth of skyrocketing expectations. Using ACSI data, customer expectations over the past 12 years have remained largely consistent at the macro level (across industries and businesses), scoring between 79 and 82 on a scale where 100 marks the greatest expectations. Now, corporations in the auto industry like BMW, Mercedes, and Toyota reportedly always have to deal with clients who have expectations that are far higher than the average .

Despite the constant cross-industry expectations, many companies choose to aim higher and higher, or at the very least, to “always exceed customer expectations.” Is this the expected trend in customer behavior going forward? Practically speaking, it is a weak defense since firms shouldn’t claim that they will “always exceed expectations,” as attempting such a strategy is unsustainable. Businesses should set reasonable goals while still providing customers with an excellent experience.

Quality Performance Matters

How have consumers’ opinions of quality (for brands, goods, and services) changed through time? What quality entails is crucial in this situation. Reliability and customizability are terms used to describe quality in the ACSI, however, as a factor in customer satisfaction, customizability outweighs reliability. On a scale of 100 points, where 100 is the greatest quality, quality has generally ranged from 79 to 83 over the past 12 years at the macro level. For instance, Quaker has outstanding ratings for overall quality, with BMW and Publix topping the charts for both product and service quality.

Strategies for increasing happiness in the absence of improvements in perceived quality for many organizations are likely to be a major concern moving forward. Despite what many managers believe, quality always wins over money. More generally, across the majority of economic sectors and industries, quality also outperforms value as a factor in consumer satisfaction. Additionally, because of the “mass customization” nature of our economy, personal aptitude is seen as being more important to pleasure than the dependability of goods and services.

Value Is More or Less About Price

Customers’ perceptions of value have increased over a long period, more so than for the other factors that influence satisfaction (such as customer expectations and the quality of the goods and services). Is it possible to maintain a focus on value as the key factor in happiness given this ACSI data-driven truth over 30 years? Maybe! There is still room for improvement because the value range in the ACSI data is still smaller than the range for expectations and quality (ranging from 76 to 79, on average, in the last 12 years, with 100 being the highest value).

Promoting customer satisfaction and economic growth through a price-based value proposition as opposed to a high-quality product has advantages and downsides, as it always does. In the long run, doing so is nonsensical. While national perceived value assessments have risen over the past three decades, not all economic sectors and industries have seen high and rising values. Little Caesars, a global pizza company, is a good example because it has handled the value proposition better than most. A large portion of Newegg’s business is likewise value-based.

Satisfaction Is Never Guaranteed

The ACSI score is a cause-and-effect system-based scientific evaluation of customer satisfaction that tries to comprehend the customer experience, customer journey, and strength of customer-company relationships. The ACSI continuously gathers customer satisfaction data and publishes it at predetermined intervals. Good examples of consistently high-scoring businesses on the ACSI customer satisfaction index are Amazon, Clorox, and Heinz. Further, More generally, satisfaction is a key marker of macroeconomic shifts and expansion in a country’s economy.

In a broader sense, satisfaction is a crucial indicator of macroeconomic changes and growth in a nation’s economy. The U.S. economy (GDP) is roughly 70% consumer spending, and any succeeding quarter’s spending growth is 30% customer satisfaction-related. According to the ACSI, the average range of customer satisfaction during the previous 12 years has been between 73 and 77, with 100 denoting the most satisfied client.

Appreciate Complaining, Customers

Recognize the value of irate customers. Why? It makes sense that many businesses view customer complaints negatively. The handling of complaints can be time-consuming, irksome, and expensive. Businesses that respond to complaints well build better client loyalty. However, for customers to return and be as least as satisfied as before they complained, complaint management must be nearly flawless.

Companies that actively consider customer concerns create more competitive brands, goods, and services. In other words, it’s possible to see the good in complaints! Unfortunately, a lot of unhappy consumers decide not to complain, and this can have detrimental long-term effects on businesses. Positively, we frequently discover that Campbell’s and Levi’s consumers rarely complain, which is remarkable considering 12.8%

Stick Around and Be Loyal

Over the one-time 12 years, there has existed a rise in customer loyalty to the brands, goods, and usefulness they use. Surprisingly, in terms of generational compatriots for consumer loyalty, the Millennial age—those born between 1981 and 1996—is second only to the invalid Silent Generation—those born between 1928 and 1945. Customers hold high degrees of loyalty towards Google and Publix, two businesses with very distinct focus areas (the average value range for the past 12 years is between 73 and 77, with 100 being the most loyal).

It is effective to make efforts to win customers’ loyalty across generations and industries. According to ACSI data, clients who encounter a problem and file a complaint yet obtain effective complaint handling develop stronger-than-average loyalty. Even more devoted consumers arise from nearly flawless complaint management than those who had a problem-free experience. But to effectively connect the dots, we need what we call “cause-and-effect” dynamics, which more coarse-grained evaluations are unable to perform with the same reliability and validity.

Satisfied Customers Drive Financials

What we started with earlier, customer happiness should be seen as a strategic company asset that must be optimized, not maximised, and most definitely not neglected! But only if it has an impact on a company’s financial performance can customer happiness be considered a strategic asset. The cause-and-effect relationship between customer happiness and financial performance has been amply demonstrated by several scientific research.

It has been shown utilizing time series data that consumer fulfillment is a reliable needle of stock market success that has exceeded the S&P 500 over the last 30 years. Industries are drawn to certain aspects of analysis and financial performance, such as need share, revenue, sales development, cash flows, profitability, return on acquisition (ROI), cost of capital, stock price, shareholder value, and stock market risk.

Fix Company-Customer Disconnects

These leadership positions, which show that businesses are strongly focused on measuring, monitoring, and controlling their customers’ experiences, are now common in many firms. They are known as Chief Experience Officers (CXO) and Customer Experience Managers (CXM). The consumer’s interaction with a company’s branding, goods, and services is a crucial part of the purchasing and customer retention processes, even if these leadership responsibilities are not officially recognized.

Companies follow their clients’ trips throughout, looking for problems and joyous moments. The ultimate goal of customer experience management is to increase satisfaction and loyalty, but it’s also critical to pull the correct triggers at the right time. Managers frequently underestimate customer complaints while overestimating consumer expectations, perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty. In terms of quality and happiness, Xfinity (Comcast) has one of the biggest discrepancies between what its managers believe its consumers anticipate and what those customers expect.

Know the Ecosystem with Scientific Metrics

The world is getting bigger (more than 8 billion people), more connected, and more global. More people equals more potential consumers for all businesses (small, medium, and large) in the thriving global economy. This evolution has been somewhat slowed down by Covid-19, but it is still on a high trajectory, with 9 billion people expected to live on the planet during the next 15 years.

Because customers’ demands and wants are becoming more diverse, an expanding customer base typically means that satisfaction is generally trending lower. How can we counteract this impact? The application of scientific customer-experience measures by businesses to orchestrate the customer-centric ecosystem holds the key to the solution. Businesses must comprehend cause-and-effect measurements and build and supply satisfaction based on them. The value propositions for Apple and all firms continue to be a struggle, even though Apple now displays great ecosystem connection and cause-and-effect understanding of their brands, goods, and services in the marketplace.

Conclusion

Rubbermaid’s journey is a testament to the transformative power of Information Technology in modern business operations. By strategically integrating cloud computing, data analytics, AI, and collaboration tools, Rubbermaid not only optimized its operations but also significantly enhanced customer satisfaction. As businesses continue to evolve, Rubbermaid serves as an inspiring example of how embracing IT can drive innovation, efficiency, and unparalleled customer experiences.