Why Customer Perception Matters and How to improve it?
Javier Ramirez
Liberty University
BUSI 520: Strategic Marketing Management
Muriel Wilson
January 1, 2022
Why Customer Perception Matters and How to improve it?
What is customer perception?
In a highly competitive world, where differentiating your product or service through
objective, functional attributes is becoming increasingly difficult, marketers are focusing
their efforts on customer perception, a topic of high interest that stands behind some of the
greatest marcom campaigns of the past years, in all industries, both B2B and B2C.
If you are looking for the customer perception definition, you will find several, all
stating more or less the same thing. Customer perception encompasses the way consumers
select, organize and interpret both information and stimuli related to a brand, its products
and services, which, in turn, determines what they think and how they feel about them.
Why is customer perception important?
1. Yes, customer perception is important to any brand because it affects everything.
As a matter of fact, a SurveyMonkey report shows that 58% more people pay
attention to a brand’s message, if they have been trusting it for a long time.
Customer perception plays an important role, from understanding the customers to
communications and advertising, their buying decisions, their loyalty, the extent to which
they recommend a brand and, even more, their advocacy efforts.
A Deloitte study research, published in May 2019, mentioned that repetitive
customers refer to brands with which they have a buying history the same way they would
their friends and family, using words like “love”, “adore”, “happy”.
Companies like Apple, Guerlain, Kenzo and many more have, thus, become more
than mere suppliers of lifestyle products and garments, as consumers have started to offer
them human attributes and see them as partners, friends, helpers, curators etc.
2. Customer perception enriches the brand value and brings more possibilities for
business
In this process, as consumer perception developed on several levels, their
emotional expectations grew, as well, leading to a point where we rely on brands to
develop fun, engaging customer experiences, to create and deliver content, to come up
with new technologies that make our lives better and even get involved in social matters
and in shaping our environments.
According to the 2019 Edelman Trust Barometer Special Report, 67% of respondents
from 8 markets globally agree with the statement “A good reputation may get me to try a
product, but I will soon stop buying it unless I manage to trust the company behind the
product,”, while only 1 of 3 people can actually say that they really trust the brand they buy.
So, if we come back to the customer perception definition, we agree that trust is an
important element of how people assess brands, even more so if we take into account
that it has a great deal of influence, i.e. 31%- 37% in the decision-making process of big
purchases, as reported by SurveyMonkey.
3. The majority of business opportunities is generated from customer
experienceKnowing that brand loyalty has become one of the most valuable assets a
company may own, marketers invest more and more in offering customers emotional
benefits and building a good consumer perception through positive shopping experiences.
Actually, most of business opportunities are generated through offline and online
customer experience.
Adobe in association with Econsultancy has recently revealed in the 2019 Digital
Trends that B2B companies generate the most of their business opportunities from
optimizing customer experience. This variable came first above all other important
elements such as content marketing, social media, video, data driven marketing and so
on.
Further, statistics show 86% of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer
experience, with a price premium of up to 13% to 18%, thus perceiving such brands as the
fines.
Think about it, we buy because placing the order is easy, because the app or website
runs smoothly, because the sales rep is nice, welcoming and helpful etc. Buying is becoming
less about the products themselves and more about the added value we receive in the
process.
5. Costs to find a substitute are reduced greatly
Nowadays, no matter their budgets and criteria, consumers have more options than
ever before. Advancement in technology makes it easier for goods and services to be found
and at the same time, reduces greatly the costs to switch from one brand to another with
minimum efforts and costs, as soon as the customer is unsatisfied or has a negative
perception.
What influences consumer perception?
1. Presentation of the brand and weirdly, its clientele
Presentation of a brand, ranging from the logo, UI, packaging to the lighting of
physical stores creates an initial image for potential customers. This is the reason why
companies invest heavily on the design and as a consequence the appearance of its
company and services, considering that those visuals impact greatly consumer perception.
Demographics of clients using products of certain brands impact the consumer
perceptions of those brands too. This is particularly true for the luxury business, as
consumers of this industry link tightly the brand image to their own identity; Therefore
buyers very much help convey the brand message in this case. This explains why high luxury
brands are so selective on their customers.
2. Customer experiences: interaction with the brand before/ during/ after the
purchase
This is perhaps the most important factor that influences customer perception.
The days when consumers were looking for products and services are long gone.
Now everyone is in search of a consistent, remarkable experience, that is worth reliving and
sharing on social networks.
It’s not just about those sneakers, that lipstick or the watch, it’s about the interaction
each of us has with brands across different channels.
From a futuristic website which responds to the customer’s desires, to delivering
target content which enhances that experience or to the in-store media and personalized
services, everything needs to be carefully crafted for your public, in order to create a
customer perception from which you may benefit.
. Marketing and commercial activities
Marketing and commercial activities are meant to attract, engage and motivate
consumers in brand sponsored interaction and experiences that will drive actions from
them.
Also known as “brand activations”, these tactics have a place in different points of
the consumer’s journey, from discovering the product, to building positive customer
perception, as well as to encouraging recommendations.
Ways to influence consumer perception for your brand
So, we have answered the question “what is customer perception and why is it
important”, we have discussed the elements of customer perception, now let’s see what we
can actually do to influence it and differentiate our brands.
1. Always strive for consistency
A key element of the customer perception definition is that it reflects what
consumers think and how they feel about your products and services. But what happens if
different channels put out contradictory or unconnected messages?
Lack of consistency affects your brand’s consumer perception, canceling your
marketing efforts or even doing harm to your overall image.
This is why it is vital to strive for consistency and to ensure that you have an
integrated marketing strategy, implemented across all channels.
From the first brand interaction, to the after-purchase tactics, your consumer’s
journey must be a smooth, pleasant one, built on the same values, principles and on
complementary messages.
2. Build friendships and create emotional bonds with consumers
It’s no news that most of the decisions we make on a daily basis are due to
emotional triggers.
Actually, as the Deloitte research study shows, in order to recommend a product or
brand, people need more than mere company values and CSR promises, they need a
strong, reliable emotional connection that helps shape their customer perception.
And this of course pays off as HubSpot reveals that consumers that have an
emotional bond with the brand have 306% higher lifetime value and a 71% chance of
recommending a company, compared to the average rate of 45%.
With these in mind a question arises: in a world so digitized, what kind of
emotional bonds do customers expect?
According to the same report by Deloitte, consumers are now looking for brands that
are willing to be their friends and want these relationships to be based on responsiveness, a
good understanding of their socio-cultural and political contexts, empathy, a high degree
of personalization and bidirectional communications.
Consumers expect their favorite companies to know which of their products and
services they use, with what frequencies and utilize all these to serve them personalized
information and experiences.
As with all friends, consumers want brands to relate to their feelings, pay attention
to their feedback, listen and reply. It is only when these are accomplished, that brands may
benefit from positive consumer perception.
Since there is no room for delay, “who likes a friend which replies to your texts after
a week?”, marketers have started using for example, AI chatbots as a tool to improve
services.
