The 'touchy-feely' customer

["Damien Braniff" <DBraniff -at- amphion -dot- com>]

Last week we had a customer orientation seminar for the whole company
followed by a team-building weekend (still recovering!). One thing was
raised at the seminar that got me thinking and I thought I'd through it
out for discussion to see where TW fits into the scheme of things. We
were given a list of factors and asked to place them in order of
importance to the customer as far as influencing repeat custom.  The
list was:

1	Business expertise/Image - stability, recognition, leadership,
business sense, knowledge, personal characteristics
2	Dedication to the customer - solve business problems, be a
business partner, competitive prices
3	Account sensitivity/guidance - sensitive to budget/pricing
needs, sensitive to total package, on time, compatible
4	Product performance/quality - consistent quality, performs as
anticipated, flexible, good support
5	Support service/excellence - people skills, reliable, competent
in helping customer
6	Confirmation of capabilities - proof of claims (if needed).
on-site inspection

I've left some space if you want to have a go yourself before seeing the
results.

























The audience was a mix of (mainly) engineers, sales staff, managers,
admin (and me!). Each group came up with a slightly different order but
the majority was strongly biased towards the last three.  We were then
given the results of a survey carried out by (I think) Learning
International that asked this question to a very large sample of
companies (varied) in both the US and Europe - results were fairly
standard across all regions and company types.  From the CUSTOMER
perspective the factors influencing repeat custom was exactly as listed
above:

1	29%
2	25%
3	23%
4	10%
5	9%
6	4%

Basically, for over 75% of customers, the actual product was way down
the list. Now we're told to think 'audience. audience, audience' and
rightly so but we often don't get a lot of management support (see TW
polls about how often we get to do any usability studies or even get to
talk to the customer at all!). Could the reason for this be that the
documentation, as long as it's adequate, isn't really important in the
scheme of things.  Excellent features (including documentation) etc
don't bring in repeat business! Once you're in, you're in the
'touchy-feely' zone - it's interpersonal skills and that feeling 'we can
do business with these people'. If you have that 'connection' customers
are much more likely to be forgiving if there's a cock-up (as long as
it's not too major!). Could this fit in with the view that we don't NEED
(be nice though) excellent or even good documentation, adequate is
enough - as long as it's accurate and usable it's OK.  Could the look
and feel of the document be more important than the content (as long as
the content was adequate)?


Damien Braniff
Technical Writer
Amphion Semiconductor Ltd.
50/51 Malone Road
BT9 5BS  Belfast, Antrim
Northern Ireland

Tel:	028 9050 4000
Fax:	028 9050 4001
E-mail:	dbraniff -at- amphion -dot- com
Web:	www.amphion.com





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