Consumer satisfaction should be achieved at any cost:

Consumer satisfaction should be achieved at any cost:

6 people are having a discussion on the topic (Suresh, Gokul, Arya, Vignesh, Gopi, Priya).

Group Discussion Starts

Vignesh: Hello everyone. It’s nice to meet you all once again. Today we have something interesting to discuss. The topic is about us, the customers. Whether we need to get satisfied by the products or services at any cost will be the topic on which we are going to discuss now. As a customer, I always need good products that satisfy my needs otherwise I will switch my option to the next. This is an eternal truth in many of our cases.

Suresh: As you said it is really an interesting topic. But I view something different. I would say that the ultimate requirement in economics is the demand and the supply. Both are dependent on one another. I believe that the producers i.e. suppliers here take the responsibility of creating the demand among the customers. So I would say that the satisfaction of the customers heavily depends on the producers in first place. I wish to mention here what Steve Jobs has mentioned once.

"People don't know what they want until we tell them so"

Here it indirectly means that even the satisfaction of the customers is being relied on the producers who make the product.

Gokul: I agree with you Suresh. But do you think that without consumer prefers the company will make the products. They understand the need of the customer and they get to know what they exactly wish to have. Based on that they create the products and creates the demand. Customer has the right to choose which is good for them. But the bitter truth is they are not getting satisfied in all the means. For example in public services like Railways and Bus stands there is a lack of proper service to the consumers. Even they demand it is not being provided.

Priya: But there are certain areas where it can’t be questioned or dealt with. In most of the segments, customer satisfaction plays a huge role. I have one example of a recent happening. It is about Nestle Maggi. People got dissatisfied with the product because of higher levels of MSG. The stock price of Nestle dropped nearly 25% from the actual. All the stocks from the wholesale and retail stores were called back by Nestle. All these happened only because of customers who were not satisfied with the product.

Arya: Well said Priya. Just let us consider a situation where a customer felt dissatisfied by the company. It may be also because of being cheated by the organisation. If we think this situation from consumer’s perspective, they can go to consumer form and file a complaint against the organisation. They can use different social network sites as Twitter, Facebook etc. and inform others about the happening to others. Adding more to it, the adventure of Right to Information act has made people more powerful than they were before

Gopi: Yes friends and I have a different view on this topic. Based on the satisfaction of the customers towards the products, the brands that are really good are known to others. Consider network providers like Vodafone, Bharti airtel, Reliance or even other business in any field like automobiles, electronics. In any of these services or products, customer’s satisfaction is highly significant in order to know to develop their company’s business based on the customer’s insight and taste.

Suresh: My view is Globalization has made people to decide the products based on their satisfaction. Many organizations are there who compete among them to make their stand clear in terms of customer’s satisfaction. Consider this example. Clinic plus was the market leader once in shampoo segment but now it is replaced by many new products as L’Oreal, Tresemme etc. because these products met the demand put forwarded by the customer segment. They give more importance to their satisfaction.

Vignesh: I agree with you Suresh. Because this strategy to lure customer’s satisfaction is not only present in FMCG segment and also in Banking sector. Banks like SBI, HDFC, and ICICI are in huge competition in providing better facility to consumers to make them satisfied. More number of applications is being launched that brings the people more convenience in banking and they make them not to visit their bank branches. Even in automobile industry organisations come up with several new features that attracts customers to provide them more satisfaction.

Arya: I have something that adds few insights to this discussion. I would say that customer’s satisfaction is not something concrete. It falls as a prey to brands and such products. And branded products take this as an opportunity to lure the minds of customers. For example brands like Levis, Jockey have their products for much higher price. And people don’t prefer the product even of the same quality but of a normal brand. Here they don’t get satisfied because of the quality but for the brand. Thus companies meet the satisfaction of people through their brands.

Gokul: Yes friends. And we can summarise them like if a company has failed to understand the needs and demands of the consumer and failed to reach their satisfaction, it is sure that they are meant to hurt their key objective of making profit. From government perspective even it has passed several laws for protection of the rights of the customer directly related to their satisfaction which reveals the importance to it.