How to avoid buyer’s dissonance?

January 17, 2015

1. Introduction:

Marketing in the 21^st century is facing a lot of challenges that aren’t supposed to become easier in the future, in the presence of lots of varieties & options for different customers it is impossible to survive without differentiating our products from the competitor, also putting into consideration that other competitors are eagerly defending their products & services too.

After beating the competitor & selling my product, shall I suppose that the game is over & take my customer for granted? Of course not, if the customer doesn’t feel completely delighted with my product & service he will feel regret & remorse towards buying my product & will go to the competitor next time.

Customers who are just satisfied are opportunities to my competitors & can switch to their products easily.

2. How to avoid?

Let’s take an example of a given company (Computech) which is a marketing oriented company that sells computer hardware & deals with both large entities & normal household sector.

To avoid dissonance of my customers I will implement a marketing strategy which starts before even selling the product & continues even after the (Computech) warranty period is over.

Let’s divide this process of avoiding customer dissonance into 5 steps:

1. Promotion & advertising:

Quite a big amount of money is spent on advertising, to use this tool to avoid buyer’s dissonance I have to apply two rules:

1^st is to avoid overestimating my product so not to disappoint my customer about features & benefits

2^nd is to avoid also under estimation to prevent the customer from ignoring my product from the very start

I.e.  Attracting the customer to my product but giving myself an area for his delight.

1. The selling process:

One of the factors which make the customer feel guilty & pity himself for buying a product is buying under stress, to avoid this we have to make the customer feel that we are helping him to choose & not forcing or exerting pressure on him to take the product, it is a win – win situation.

For example, if a customer enters my (Computech) store he will be welcomed by an employee who will ask politely if he can help the customer, then will deliver the customer to the department in which the category asked for is found.

Then another professional sales man will help the customer to find his/her want & hardware specifications according to what is requested by the customer so that the customer feels that it’s his complete decision & those sales people just were helping him to take it the right way.

This way a customer is relax & isn’t regretting buying the product.

1. Post selling service:

It is very common for a PC user to face troubles after using his / her new PC, when a customer buys a piece of hardware or an entire computer he thinks about two issues (How is the PC performing now & what about upgrading & troubleshooting in the future )

So, the post selling follow-up for this customer should be very satisfactory in order to keep his / her loyalty, the following are examples of what can be done after selling a new computer:

• An employee of (Computech) can go & install the computer in the owners place & install an operating system
• Two years warranty will be offered during which any piece of hardware that is previously purchased from(Computech) stores will be changed instantly if the customer is facing troubles
• (Computech) is very confident in its products’ quality & satisfaction is guaranteed – each & every customer is allowed to return the unsatisfying hardware & take his money back within the first SIX MONTHS period of use
• (Computech) can ask the customer about his/her interests & needs regarding programs to be installed in the new PC & install these software FOR FREE on the PC
• A follow up phone call can be done after three days to insure that the PC is doing well & meeting or exceeding the customer’s expectations
• After all these processes if the customer asks for help , a (Computech) computer engineer will go immediately to his/her place & fix the problem for FREE only taking the charge of newly installed hardware if out of the warranty period
• If you are a customer & you want to upgrade your PC, just bring your old one or phone us to come & take it – And if you are still in the warranty period you will only pay a small amount of money to upgrade tom the most recent configuration.
• Dear customer , you will be provided with catalogues , manuals & materials regarding our new products , services & special offers from time to time & it’s our honor to receive your comments any time
• If you are (Computech) loyal customer you will receive a FREE PC after buying products with a certain money value –(Computech) special customers must be treated specially

1. Relationship marketing:

One of the keys to success to make (Computech) customers loyal is to keep a special relationship with him/her.

(Computech) works continuously with the customer helping him/her to perform better to make him/her feel that he/she is a part of the organization & will keep customer’s loyalty.

(Computech) can call the customer from time to time to keep good relationship, for example at birthday or general occasions (Feast, Christmas, Ramadan ….etc)

1. Special offers:

Customers like savings & from this point of view if the customer felt that (Computech) product is money saving, he/she will feel that he/she chosen the right product & company.

For example if the customer purchases a complete PC, he/she will receive a free keyboard & mouse & if he/she purchases a lap top he/she will receive a free extra RAM chipset to improve the CPU performance …etc.

Another example is that if (Computech) is going to sell a large amount of hardware to a company for example, (Computech) will provide them with facilities in payment, extra warranty, free software, or free Ethernet cards for inside networking or free consultation …etc

After all these services, we still say that there is always an opportunity for (Computech) to delight its customers more & more.

Dear customer

 You are the true owner of (Computech)