Module 3 Influencing strategies – How to improve work of my business/organization with help of the Principles of persuasion, week 4

 

This week´s assignment:

Blog: Reflect upon how you could improve the work of your business/organization regarding customer satisfaction/experience with the help of the principles of persuasion.


Connected to Reciprocity and Liking
Our distributors sometimes bring customer and potential customers on customer trips to visit our factory. We present our company philosophy and show them the company facilities and the industrial set up behind the vehicle manufacturing. The basic thought with these customer trips are of course to  trigger more sales, build up the confidence for the company as such but also with a hope to create loyalty to our brand and influence future purchase behaviour. (building relationships)

This is something I think we shall continue with. These customer visits are very appreciated by our customers and it seems like the basic thought with the customer trips - trigger more sales, build up the confidence for the company as such, create loyalty to our brand and influence future purchase behaviour – is really working. And of course – it´s really a good way building relationships, both between:

- the salesman (working at the distributor, he/she are usually the travelling with the customers to Sweden) and the customer
-  the salesman and the Product- and Area Managers at factory
- the customers and the Product- and Area Managers at factory

Relationships are really important! In some regions (for example in Middle East, Asia) it´s everything.




Connected to Consistency, Liking and Consensus  

Knowing the customer is a key for successful business. We need to understand the customers business and daily work even more. By building customer and market knowledge we´ll get better outputs in line with customer expectations and demands, which will lead to more satisfied customers and better customer experience. A good reputation will spread.

We actually have a good segmentation tool for that already which we should use even more!

Module 3 Influencing strategies – Principles of persuasion in ads, week 3

This week´s assignment:
Blog: Identify a set (two or three) advertisement to analyze, which are NOT from your organization. Apply the principals you have encountered during the course. Which principal(s) are used, how likely is it to work, and for what target group, based on information in the advertisement.


I start with an advertisement for Liedl.

“Now 12:- MORE EXPENSIVE! Valid for 6-pack Gelatelli icecream and only  and only upon presentation of this ad”

If you read further down in the ad it says “Unique offer to you 93%* that need an enticing high price to believe in the quality”. It also says in even smaller print further down: “*Source Brandz 2012. Percentage of non-clients who think that Liedl is “to cheap” for them to shop there.”

I think that this is a quite innovative ad, it really attract the eyes because first you think that it´s a mistake, a misprint… What? More expensive?...

The add is based on the fundamental thought that people tend to think that less expensive products equals less quality. With this innovative ad they hope to attract even customers with that belief.


I think that the basic thought here is to make people try out the products at Liedl and then, due to that they have low expectations from the beginning, this will probably lead to a positive disconfirmation, according to Oliver´s Expectancy Disconfirmation Model of Satisfaction. The performance will most probably be higher than on beforehand expected.
Even if they maybe are not “clear as sausage soup” as we say in Sweden J, I can think of three of the Cialdini principles:

-          There has been done an investigation by a company that found out that there were 93% not shopping at Liedl. This can be connected to the Cialdini´s 3^rd principle “Authority”.

-          By using this 93% figure, even if it´s not in Liedl´s favour, it means that I´m not alone with this thought, there are actually many more people that are thinking like me! Therefore, I think that Cialdini´s principle no 6 “Consensus” can be applied here in some extent.

-          I also think that Cialdini´s no.4 “Consistency” in some extent that can apply on Liedl.
If they get people to try out the products and if the quality of the products are higher than expected, this will create consistency and commitment – customers will come back.

One theory I have is that there´s actually 93% of the people that doesn´t shop at Liedl due to that they think it´s too cheap. I think this can create a curiosity and a challenge – do I dare try?...


  


Next add “Loreal” is using the 6^th principle of consensus. (Sorry for the really bad quality of the picture)  It says “We asked 15.000 women to give us 8 weeks on their deep-set wrinkles – The result speak for themselves”

The target group for this ad is probably women in the forties/fifties.
Also, by using the face of Andy MacDowell, we can also connect to principle no 5 - “Liking”. Many women in the fifties would like to look like her.


After having listened to Tobias Otterbring´s studies regarding physical appearance and sex specific purchase preferences, we also learn that women tend to take quite high risks when it comes to looks and health, therefore I think that by using  “The result speak for themselves”  creates a feeling that you maybe have to try even if you don´t believe in it…. Because, what if it works?…  Do you dare to take the chance to not to try?...

Module 3 Influencing strategies – Reflection upon the principles for persuasion, week 2

This week´s assignment:
Blog: Reflect upon the principles of persuasion, and relate this to how you view and work with customer satisfaction/experience in your business/organization

I will follow Malin Egharts example and treat “the 6 universal principles of persuation” one by one. J

1. Reciprocity =  Our distributors sometimes bring customer and potential customers on customer trips to visit our factory. We present our company philosophy and show them the company facilities and the industrial set up behind the vehicle manufacturing. The basic thought with these customer trips are of course to  trigger more sales, build up the confidence for the company as such but also with a hope to create loyalty to our brand and influence future purchase behaviour. (building relationships)


2. Scarcity =  Don´t know about this one in our business… But I think “Scarcity-syndrom” can occur:

·          …if we for example plan to phase out a gearbox or engine in the middle of a customer delivery – if  the customer has ordered 100units he would like to have same specification on all 100units. This might rush a purchase decision.

·           …if the customer think that the new engine or gearbox is less good than the earlier version

·          .. if a new emission demand will happen at a certain time – then it´s usually a pre-buy effect in the markets.

Otherwise I must say that it´s the opposite – it could be hard maintaining sales of “old” vehicle model if a new one is in the pipeline. The customers are usually keen on having the latest models and technology.

3.  Authority = Our company has a long history in the commercial vehicles business and we have sold vehicles to many parts of the world. The brand is strong and well known and we also have one of the biggest research and development centers for heavy vehicles in the world. At the distributors sites, it´s important to have a well educated sales force. When needed, for example in deep technological issues/question, these guys/girls have back up from experts in different areas at the factory in Sweden. That creates credibility.
Our company also offers vehicles with engines running on alternative fuels. It´s of course helping sales and credibility  that these alternative fuels are supported by what different experts around the world are talking about – the importance of changing from fossil to renewable fuels… All certifications and- validation issues for engines, vehicles etc. are made by external companies, this also creates credibility and trust.

4.  Consistency = Every distributor and country have their own CRM-systems and are constantly working on their customer relations. Of course, a successful former business including a well functioning after sales is more probable to lead to new customer orders than a less successful case. Probably the customer feels a bit obliged to purchase vehicles in the future if the business and relations has been successful. A good customer relationship and customer support is the key!

5. Liking = People prefer to say yes to people they like! A good customer relationship are the key! Of course, the quality of the offer and the product as such,  matter. And of course – if you succeed in creating a good customer experience, the world of mouth will spread to others.


6. Consensus = People will look at the actions of others to determine their own. Very often our customers ask for reference customers or reference customer cases. We have experienced that a presentation of a real customer case in real life “hits higher” than the general product offer presentation, therefore we often share our “success stories” with our customers.
The fact that the company have been in business for many years and have sold to many customers in many different countries, also creates trust and reliability.


//Anki

 

Module 3 Influencing strategies, Expectations, week 1

This week´s assignment:
Blog: Expectations of the module and in what way it will be of benefit to you (and/or to your organization/business)


Influencing strategies – sounds interesting!

My expectations on this module is to learn more in the field of social influence – how does it affect people as such? How does it affect customers and customer behavior and how can companies adjust their strategies according to that?

This will be an interesting topic to learn more about and discuss during coffee breaks at work!

//Anki

Module 2 Psycological aspects - Week 4 – Reflection of short- and long term effects on customer experiences. Can we make people (un)happy?

Module 2 Psycological aspects - Week 4 – Reflection of short- and long term effects on customer experiences. Can we make people (un)happy?

 

This week´s assignment:
Blog: Reflect upon short- and long-term effects of customer experiences. Can we make people (un)happy?

Yes, of course we can make people happy or unhappy. A lot of things of course come back to the basics = performance vs. expectations.
But something else that you shouldn´t forget or neglect is ATTITUDE. According to me, 99% of how you see things are connected to attitude – your own and the people you meet.

For example, you have had some product problems. You have a close contact with the customer and are working on a solution. Even if you don’t have a ready solution you are keeping up the dialogue with the customer and you are also telling him what different solutions you are working on. Given this, you can actually turn this product problem to something positive, this since you have showed the customer attention and you are listening to him and take the problem seriously. This short-term product problem, depending how you handle it, can actually help you to build a long term relation with the customer. First of all you have built up a personal contact but also you have showed that your company is a company to trust, also in stormy weathers.

And if you ask me - a positive attitude takes you far, it can actually move mountains! This is at least something I practice, both at work and in real life. J