Cairo University Faculty of Commerce MBA

Customer Delight
By

Nevine Kamal EL.Din Mahmoud

No. 449 Research Methodology "Marketing"

Presented to Prof. Osama El-ansary

Introduction
Businesses have begun to realize that simply satisfying customers may not be enough. Rather, they should strive for Customer Delight which comes when customers are satisfied completely". Customer Delight is the result of delivering a product or service that exceeds customer expectations. Customer delight is when we create a feeling of "WOW". World doesn't aim any more for customer satisfaction but for customer delight. The world becomes now a small village full of competitors which make the customer satisfaction merely enough to compete against them. The delighted customer is more valuable for the company as it will help to the companies to compete with the competitors. We should seek for the customer delight because only that guarantee the loyalty of the customer according to, the companies should go beyond the customer expectations to achieve the customer delight. Customer delight nowadays became a goal and a marketing tool for the companies, so a company would be wise to measure customer delight regularly because one key to customer retention is customer delight. A highly delighted customer still loyal longer, buys more as the company introduces new products and upgrades existing products, talks favorably to others about the company and its products. Nowadays, Customer delight is a key to success. Customer delight refers to if the company reaches beyond the expectations of the customer and the customer exceeded quality, then the customer is delighted. The factor of delighters comes after the factor of satisfying consumer need. A delighted customer finds the largest perceived value-cost gap. Customers are moving towards services and quality. Delighted customer can do a lot in the favor of a company.

Importance of the study

The importance of customer delight as a Marketing tool against competitors . 2. What is the difference between Customer Delight and Customer Satisfaction? ; Note that though some see delight as an extension of satisfaction at the extreme positive end so we need to correct this misunderstanding. Customer delight and satisfaction were not the same because delight to take pleasure in which satisfaction means how we agree the person that will purchase the product or not, so the both gives different meanings.
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How customer service, CRM and servqual are affecting the customer delight? If we provide the customer with great customer service, the good quality of the services they receive and great relation and bond with company then the customer will delighted so he will remain loyal, can repeated buying, a good word of mouth. A delighted customer can increase the profit rate tents to over the life of it. A new acquired customer can cost five times of a remained delighted customer.
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The most successful businesses have discovered a formula that goes beyond product and service. Their business is providing delight to their customers by understanding their specific personal interests, anticipating their needs, exceeding their expectations, and making every moment and aspect of the relationship a pleasant or better yet, an exhilarating experience.
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Literature Review
Schneider and Bowen (1999)
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The authors first note that satisfying customers is not enough to retain them. Instead, loyalty may be a function of delight. Because most customers emotions range from moderately satisfied to moderately dissatisfied, they are not particularly store loyal. But customers who are delighted will become loyal buyers and tell others. The focus here, then, is on customer delight and its opposite, rage, both considered more intense than satisfaction and dissatisfaction, in an attempt to understand the customers emotions and the effect of emotions on loyalty. The authors had discussed two models: the metexpectations or disconfirmation of expectations model and a needs based model. The former proposes that delight results from providing a positive, surprising departure from expectations. That is, a customers expectations are positively disconfirmed, which activates an aroused state that is quite positive. For example, customers possess expectations about the retail purchase process, and by meeting those stores generate satisfaction. Greatly exceeding expectation, then, results in delight. But the authors conclude, By the authors systematically evoking customer delight by exceeding customer expectations is a difficult management task. And the met-expectations model does not offer insights into emotionally charged customer reactions such as delight and outrage. The needs-based model postulates that delight and outrage stem from the way retailers handle the security, justice, and self-esteem needs of their customers. While unmet expectations can cause disappointment, needs are central to a core state of well being such that failure to satisfy them can cause outrage and gratification can yield delight. Security is the need to feel unthreatened by physical or economic harm. To fulfill a security need, a firm must know which promises related to physical or economic harm customers expect it to honor, and then always keep its promises. Justice is the need to be fairly treated. Customers expect service providers to treat them fairly. If they perceive otherwise, they become angry. Self-esteem is the need to maintain and enhance
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ones self-image. Firms can enhance a customers feelings of self worth by acknowledging the customers perspective, importance, and rights so that he/she feels important and competent in the service setting. Schneider and Bowen suggest that when human resource managers satisfy their employees needs the effort will transfer from employees to customers. Companies that build positive relationships with customers by treating them as people first and customers second will generate retention and profitability. However, the authors do not empirically test either met-expectations or needs-based model Rust and Oliver (2000) The authors draw upon the customer satisfaction literature to build a mathematical model to examine the issue that delighting customers raises the bar and makes it more difficult to satisfy them in the next purchase cycle. They do not test their model. In their brief review of the literature, they conclude, Features with the capacity to delight are those that are unexpectedly or surprisingly pleasant, or add utility to the product beyond that which is expected." And after a review of the prior work on disconfirmation, they conclude" delight cannot be achieved without surprisingly positive levels of performance" and this "performance must be positively valence." A customers memory of occasions where a firm delighted them heightens their expectations relative to future interactions. Customers may recall delighting occurrences, come to accept them as normal, and expect even more features (assimilated delight). However, customers may also remember the delighting experience, consider it a one-time event, savor the memory, and hope it happens again (reenacted delight). Or, customers may forget the delighting event and experience it again as new (transitory delight). The three memory components form a continuum with assimilated at one end, reenacted in the middle, and transitory at the opposite end.

The authors present 11 assumptions that incorporate disconfirmation of expectations theory, the relationship between customer retention and profits, the cost of service quality, and the inability of competitors to duplicate the delighting service. The authors believe their mathematical model demonstrates that delighting the customer is an attractive strategy if (1) satisfaction has a strong influence on behavior, (2) future profits receive significant weight in the model, (3) the satisfaction of competitors customers has a strong impact on retention and other behaviors, and (4) the firm is able to capitalize on dissatisfied customers of competitors by converting them into its customers. If these four factors exceed a given threshold, delighting the customer will be profitable. However, once delighted, expectations are raised and make delighting the customer more difficult in the future. Delight programs will be successful if customers forget previous delighting experiences, if an even more delightful experience can be achieved, and if other firms customers can be attracted. Note that the authors assume, but do not state, that delight is an extreme form of satisfaction. Kumar and Iyer (2001) The authors assume that customer delight is an extreme level of satisfaction but they propose to determine those factors that discriminate between the two. Customers expect a level of performance from a retail service experience, but the expectations may be different prior to the event than after because the experience will affect the post expectations. Perhaps postexperience expectations will involve the interpersonal behavior of the service provider whereas characteristics of the service itself make up the pre-experience expectations. Kumar and Iyer propose, therefore, that interpersonal behavior attributes better discriminate between satisfaction and delight than characteristics of the service itself. More specifically, they hypothesize that the latter will lead to customer satisfaction and the former to delight.
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In a field study they conducted telephone interviews with 191 customers of car dealerships. Professional interviewers asked questions about the service encounters when subjects last visited the dealership. Respondents rated their service experience on a scale from 1 (completely dissatisfied) to 10 (completely satisfied) with three additional questions about interpersonal aspects and four on characteristics of the service itself. The former included questions about the staffs attitude, helpfulness, and explanations provided. The latter asked about dealerships cleanliness, hours, length of time needed to complete the work, and the scheduling of work. From the data collected, the authors concluded, aspects related to a service providers interpersonal behavior are better discriminators between customer satisfaction and customer delight than aspects related to the firms service characteristics. Managers wishing to delight customers should direct resources to improving interpersonal factors (e.g., training) over service characteristics. Note, however, that Kumar and Iyer did not measure delight independently, but as an extreme form of satisfaction. As they stated, Respondents who gave a 9 or a 10 rating on the question pertaining to overall satisfaction with the service were considered as delighted Customers. Verma (2003) The author defines satisfaction as the result of assessment made by the customer of service delivery in comparison with their [sic] prior expectations. Satisfaction occurs with positive disconfirmation. And delight is experienced when the customer is pleasantly surprised in response to an experienced disconfirmation. That is, delight occurs when a customer receives a service or product that satisfies but also provides an unexpected value or unexpected satisfaction. The difference between satisfaction and delight is that he former involves receiving the expected while in the latter the customer receives the unexpected. Note, however, that Verma assumes that delight is an extreme positive form of satisfaction. Verma asked 150
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executives to relate their experience with a service firm that leads to delight. Their observations were content analyzed and 97 critical incidents identified. From these critical incidents Verma had identified delighters. Delighters included positive interpersonal factors such as employee politeness, respect, friendliness, consideration, taking a personal interest in the customers problems and needs and solving them, and going beyond the call of duty. Berman (2005) He was focused on taking satisfied customers to a state of delight. He concluded that satisfaction is based on fulfilling the expected while delight occurs from the unexpected. His belief was to link an emotional experience with the customer to create an emotionally positive and memorable experience. Bermans study found a critical difference between satisfied vs. delighted. A customer that was delighted was eighty-six percent more likely to buy again as compared to twenty-nine percent that were only satisfied. Delighting customers is a win for the customers, provides a competitive advantage and results in increased sales and profit for the company. Finn (2005) Customer delight is conceptualized as an emotional response, which results from surprising and positive levels of performance. delight is a combined outcome of joy and surprise. Satisfaction, however, represents a cognitive response to consumption. Outrage, the opposite of delight, is also conceptualized as an emotional response. In an extension of other research , Finn surveyed a convenience sample of 319 university students and staff who had recently visited a consumer web site. He found support for the conceptualization of consumer delight and customer satisfaction as distinct constructs. The distinct delight

and satisfaction constructs are at the heart of separate emotional and cognitive response sequences. Evans and Burns (2007) In this research effort delight is defined as . an extension of satisfaction, characterized by pleasure or positive affect, and experienced by customers when their expectations are surprisingly disconfirmed. The authors conducted three exploratory studies to investigate product-related delight. In the first, they installed a camera and microphone in the dash of a new automobile and recorded the evaluative behaviors of 308 females and 472 males who examined the car at the 1999 British Motorshow. They categorized the viewers verbal and facial expressions qualitatively and gave each a subjective rating from 1 (delight) through 5 (disgust). They found 22 overt and instantly recognizable customer delight responses to distinct vehicle features. The second study asked four women and 12 men to examine a car and then drive it while an interviewer rode along and asked the subjects to discuss those vehicle attributes that appealed to them. The interviewer then categorized each attribute on a scale from 1 (like) to 5 (delight). The small sample size prevented the researchers from analyzing the delighters they identified. The third study gave 12 women and 18 men visitors to a 1999 London Motor show notebooks to record delighters, defined as features of a car that stand out and make you go, wow. Subjects rated each attribute evaluated from 1 (like) to 5 (delighted). The authors concluded that delighter attributes involved styling and the look of the car that much appeal was due to the novelty of an attribute, and that delighters tended to appeal to the subjects emotions and feelings. The authors provided suggestions for automobile manufacturers as they design produce and attempt to sell cars.

Alexander (2010) The author her declared that there are 3 issues with the customer delight literature. 1. The most of literature is about customer satisfaction not delight. 2. Models of the satisfaction are not appropriate for examining delight. 3. A theoretical model linking delight with repurchase behavior has not yet been developed. So he proposed a model to cover these 3 points. Delight is believed to influence the purchasing process, specifically repurchase. Because a delighted consumer may likely return to a retail store to purchase more items, repeat purchase behavior may be viewed as a consequence of Delight.

Research objectives:
The importance of customer delight as a marketing tool against competitors. 2. To clarify the impact of CRM on Customer delight. 3. To clarify the impact of servqual on Customer delight. 4. To clarify the impact of Customer service on Customer delight.
1.

Hypotheses:
If we improve the customer service, that will turn it from customer satisfaction to customer delight. If we improve the servqual, that will turn it from customer satisfaction to customer delight. If we add the CRM dimension it will turns the organization from customer satisfaction to customer delight.

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All three independent variables will significantly have major impact on turning the customer from satisfaction to delight.

Study design:
Hypothesis testing. A cross sectional causal field study. The data on the 3 independent variables and the dependent variable will be collecting from random Etisalat Customers. Unit of Analysis: Individuals "the end users".

Nonprobability Sampling:

Judgment sample will be use because the sample will only be apply on Etisalat Customers because they are the only people who have experience with Etisalat services which will clarify if there delighted or not by using these services. The total sample size will be 384 individual.

Measure and variables:

To measure customers delight they should answer questions as: o Why u choose Etisalat? o What are the differences between Etisalat and the other two competitors "Vodafone and Mobinil"? o What is the quality of the services provided to the customers? o Does Etisalat make extra effort than the others companies (CRM)? o Does the customer service answer their questions, listen to them and go beyond their expectations?

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o What services do you expect Etisalat to provide and it didn't yet? o Is the value of the services is acceptable to you or no?

Rating scales:
The scale that will be use is Likert scale, Itemized Rating Scale. The questionnaire will clarify the age, gender, level of education also it will include at least 2 open questions.

Data collection Method:

The Primary Data: o Questionnaires will be mailed or given directly to Etisalat customers. It will be finished during 4 weeks. The Secondary Data: o The Company reports, web sites, industry analysis offered by the media and the Internet.

Limitations:
The study will be only applied on Etisalat Customers. The study will only discuss the impacts of CRM, Servqual and Customer service on Customer Delight. o The study will not include the impact of customer delight on the financial situation of the company. The role of customer delights to achieve loyalty. The time limitation of the study will be from 2004 to 2009.

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Framework/timetable
Chapter one: Introduction of the study. Chapter two: overview of customer delight. Chapter three: the impact of the CRM, Customer service and Servqual on customer Delight. Chapter four: The Case Study. Chapter five: Conclusion and Recommendations. References

References:
1.

Books:

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 R.D. Blackwell, P.W. Miniard, & J.F. Engel. Consumer Behavior (Tenth Edition). Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western, 2006. Timothy keiningham and Terry Vavra, The customer delight principle: Exceeding Customers' Expectations for Bottom-Line Success, (First Edition).McGraw-Hill, 2001. Rakesh Seth and Kirti Seth. Creating Customer Delight "the how and why of CRM), India New Delhi, 2005. Philip Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller Marketing Management (13 edition), United States of America, copyright 2009, 2006, 2003, 2000, 1997 by person education.

2.

Periodical:
Barry Berman. How to delight you customer? Harvard Business Review. 2005. Benjamin Schneider; David E Bowen. Understanding Customer Delight and Outrage. Sloan Management Review; ABI/INFORM Global, Fall 1999.

M. Wayne Alexander, Minnesota State University Moorhead. CUSTOMER DELIGHT: A REVIEW. Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, Volume 14, Number 1, 2010.

M. Wayne Alexander, Minnesota State University Moorhead. Delight the customer: A model for assessing repeat purchase behavior. Proceedings of the Academy of Marketing Studies, Volume 15, Las Vegas (2010).

Web sites:

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http://etisalat.com.eg/ http://www.etisalat.ae/index.jsp?lang=en http://www.whatcustomerswant.org/satisfactionresearch/c ustomerdelight.html

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