Cindy King's International Business Blog » international customer expectations

Customer Expectations, Satisfaction & Loyalty

Cindy King — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 23:00:40 +0000

More than ever businesses are looking at the tactics they use to get and keep their customers. Rohit Bhargava wrote Customer Satisfaction Doesn’t Matter because most customers will go after the best offer no matter what you do to keep them happy. Today customer satisfaction is not as important as customer loyalty.

This is true generally in international sales too. But there is one area where customer satisfaction needs your utmost attention. In international sales you need to pay special attention to customer expectations.

Customer Expectations

Different cultures have different expectations. International business success can be made or lost depending on how well you appreciate these differences in expectations.

An example of how differences in expectations can lead to a loss of business is the Schindler elevator incident in Japan. An elevator accident happened in 2006 killing a teenager in Japan. In Japan people expected an immediate public apology from the Swiss company. The incident is still under investigation and the Swiss company thought an early apology would amount to accepting their fault.

This leading elevator company has been struggling to make sales in Japan since the incident.

Becoming Acquainted

In order to find out what your foreign customer expectations are you need to become acquainted with them. This is a process that can take some time when dealing with different cultures. Customer satisfaction is a good barometer of how well you are doing.

Loyalty In Different Cultures

Customer loyalty is a critical issue for most businesses in today’s world of globalization and down economies. The company with the better offer will always win.

But if you are do sell to international clients you also need to be aware of cultural differences in loyalty.

Here in France for example, face-to-face meetings are almost always essential for a good business relationship. There is a more personal element to loyalty.

In other cultures this personal element in loyalty is stronger. You can expect to see differences in loyalty between cultures with high scores on these cultural behavior scales:

Customer Centric Marketing

Before this customer centric trend, businesses learned to adapt to these differences as they proceeded to develop into different countries. It is true that with more experience throughout different countries you acquire certain “international skills”. What are these international skills? They are centered around flexibility… flexibility to others.

The current customer centric marketing environment should make it easy for businesses to go international. The strategy, processes and tactics exist for adapting to different customer expectations. At least within a basic format.

International Customer Experience

Cindy King — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:00:19 +0000

International Customer Expectations

In order to get international clients you need to pay special attention to your international customer’s experience.

What does this mean? Well, you really need to be aware of what your international customer is going through.

Where? At the intersection of your business and your international customer’s needs.

Response To Customer Needs

Let’s have a look at the two different levels of his needs in international business:

The need your international customer has and how your offer fulfills this need.
Your international customers needs during his buying process.

Cultural Differences

In international sales the response to these two different sets of needs can highlight cultural differences.

Positioning Your Offer For The Best Cultural Response

The first basic need all businesses need to address is the offer.

Selling a product to different countries usually involves a new product positioning.

Different cultures may appreciate different qualities or features
Different cultures respond to different emotional buttons in sales

Identify Cultural Differences In The Buying Process

Different cultures have different ways of buying things. And they may have different needs during the different buying stages:

Inquiry
Evaluation
Purchase
Use of product or service
After sales support

Some cultures may have more developed needs at different points in the buying process. This can make the buying process seem different in different cultures. You may need to address different points in varying degrees of detail or differently.

Process And Questions

All good sales professionals follow a process for evaluating their customers needs and moving them towards the sale.

You need to adapt this process for your international clients.

Part of this process is knowing which question you need to ask your customers.

With international customers you need to remember to ask the appropriate questions at each of the different buying steps.

Your Offer

First, you need to keep their one big need in top position. This is the need your offer fulfills.

For sales success, you need to understand exactly how your offer fulfills this need. And this information comes from your international customers. Any assumptions based on customers from other countries can be wrong.

Immediate Needs

Next, you need to know what your international customer needs at each specific step of his buying process.

This means systematically asking what your customer needs at this particular point in time. Again, assumptions based on your knowledge of what works in another culture can be wrong.

If you are just beginning to develop your business in a particular country, these questions and their answers are also vital for your exploratory market research.

Focus On Your International Customer

The process of finding out what your international client needs is important. Your company might have a process that does not give your full value.

A good process does not need to be complicated. Often it is the most simple tactics that work best.

International Sales Guide

With the right process you will be able to create an International Sales Guide, or cheat sheet. This is a very short guideline outlining all of the key sales and marketing information for selling one specific product in one specific culture.

How do you do this? Well it all starts with:

Finding the right questions to ask
Asking the right questions to identify your international customer’s needs
Finding your best response to these needs
Identifying anything stopping your international customer from fulfilling his needs
Good teamwork and collaboration to see the whole picture of your international customer’s experience
Creating the best experience for your international customers

Use Your Strengths

A very large part of creating a good experience for your international customers is in the details.

Most people focus on language and cultural barriers. This is natural.

But instead of focusing on your weaknesses, why not focus on your strengths.

You can often create a great experience by paying attention to the details you hear from the international customers you already have. This is a process most good sales professionals do well. They simply need to adapt these skills to international customers.

Yes, cultural differences can make the process seem difficult in the beginning. But perseverance in listening to your international customers will increase your international skills.

The process of finding the right questions and asking them at each step along the way gets easier with practice. And improves your international sales.

Up-Sell Expectations Across Cultures

Cindy King — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:00:15 +0000

International Customer Expectations

My phone rang last night. It was just as one of my favorite TV shows was starting. Now the show was on a DVD, as I answered the phone, I heard the introductory music start…

….the caller spoke to me in English.

Now this might not be significant to you.

But I live in France. And my family lives in various parts of North American.

So phone calls in English at night are usually not good news.

The caller got my attention immediately. Because he was speaking to me in English.

The introductory music ended on my TV show. I hesitated about going over to stop the recording.

…I could always re-start it again later

The caller was not anyone in my family.

…what did he want?

…If this call is going to take too long I will not be able to finish the show tonight…or it’s another late night again!

A Sales Pitch Late At Night

What?

The second sentence from my caller is “now you are interested in earning an extra $50,000 a year, aren’t you?”

A sales call? From an American? On my home phone in France?

– “Where did you get this number?”

– “Well you must have bought one my Mr. Get Rich Quick Internet Marketer’s products at one time or another”

No Relationship With The Company Intruding On My Privacy

Hmm, this Mr. Get Rich Quick Internet Marketer did have a $1 offer with a semi-hidden membership plan a while ago.

– “Do you know what time it is where I am?”

– “Uhhhh. No”

It’s not that a semi-hidden offer gets under my skin. But I definitely prefer very clear up-front information when it concerns my credit card.

Besides, Mr. Get Rich Quick Internet Marketer’s follow up emails talked so much about how his Mom thought he was great that I never stayed around on his membership plan. I am sure he is a good guy. It’s just that I was too busy to get beyond his mother.

…So after a $1 offer good enough to spark my interest, but with a semi-hidden membership pulling you in, I now get a call late at night.

This is an up-sell?

– “Do you know that it is late at night my end?”

– “No, can I call you back in a couple of hours?”

– “No, I’ll be asleep by then”

…You know what, I don’t want to go to bed late because of someone like this.

– “Look, if you do not know how to check time zones for international calls, just take my name off your list.”

Bad Timing For An Up-Sell

Apart from the bad choice of time to call me, there was also one other major flaw with this call.

It was also a very bad time to call me with an up-sell.

First, I never hooked up with this particular Get Rich Quick Internet Marketer:

The shady membership sign up was a turn off
The “my mother loves me” series of emails bored me

Second, even if I had been hooked, the timing for the up-sell was all wrong:

Jumping from $1 to several hundred dollars creates barriers in me
Jumping from a massive launch campaign to the privacy of my home is too much, too soon

Different Personal Expectations

Let’s look at the personal point of view…

Depending where you live, and your own cultural background, you might have responded just like I did. And you might not have. You might have immediately bought into the “you are interested in earning an extra $50,000 a year, aren’t you?” pitch. And you might take phone calls later than I do.

Different Marketing Expectations

Now, let’s look at the marketing…

The “my mother loves me” series of emails were obviously trying to stimulate a positive reaction. As I said, it is fairly credible that this guy is indeed a great person. So this first series of emails may have been enough to prepare for a direct home call for an up-sell for some people. But it would certainly not work in all cultures.

I have often noticed how the big Get Rich Quick Internet Marketers assume they have international businesses and that they do not need international marketing.

After all, they are popular enough to get large quantities of international orders. Their products and their sales and marketing appear to be working just fine.

Just A Little Thought Is All It Takes

Now what if…

…this Mr. Get Rich Quick Internet Marketer had…

Targeted his original “my mother loves me” email series to markets culturally open to this sort of approach, and then used another set of emails with a more appropriate approach for other cultures.
Given more thought to the timing and appropriateness of his up-sell strategy.

It would have been a different story my end.

But, right now he comes across to me as:

A little bit of a simplistic jerk
Definitely a person who wants to both waste my time and take my money before proving to me that he has any value to give me.

You need to give a little thought to how you go about marketing to your international clients.

It is not rocket science.

It is simply stepping down a moment to try to see things like they do.

And remember, selling products and services over the internet does not mean you have an international business.

In order…

To develop,

To up-sell,

To use sales funnel, or sales pipeline strategies,

…to your international markets…You need sound international marketing practices.

Cross Cultural Customer Service Expectations

Cindy King — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:07:28 +0000

International Customer Expectations

I have two teenage kids I’m trying to bring up to be ready for the working world.

They are French. I’m not. Or at least I’m only partly so. And I have the part with North American service expectations.

Culture shock.

I won’t talk to you about my service experiences when I take them to McDonalds in France. I want to talk to you about something I was not really expecting.

This is a topic I’m often confronted with. I’m North American. I have always worked up to North American levels of quality of service. Even if I’ve lived in Europe all of my professional life.

But I’ve live in France for 20 years or so: Culture shock.

I chose my bank because they were the most expensive. They charge for service. I want a decent level of service. Nothing fancy. Just the normal stuff. But I want it to run smoothly at all times. I don’t like having to run to the bank every time someone somewhere sneezes or changes jobs.

I have been with the same bank for over 20 years, two different branches, but the same bank. No problems….until I started my company two months ago.

It first started when the bank staff did not understand the difference in international practices of changing credit card numbers with the companies I had automatic debits set up on my credit card. I live 40 kilometers south of Paris. My local bank assumed all companies everywhere would operate just like in France. I was told to bugger off and left with a mess to sort out by myself right over Christmas.

The bank took my money for my business bank account at the end of January and said they had set up my business account. But I couldn’t do anything with my account until I had the means to do it: check book and credit card. Those arrived at the very end of February – over 4 weeks later. So they were late. You would expect the card to work, right? Wrong. I could not get the card to work even though my bank’s computer system said it should work.

There begins all the fun with the differences in what I expect in a service I’m paying for and what my bank staff feels is giving their maximum service.

Our definitions of service and our service expectations are very different.

I expected my bank to help me. I needed my bank card to work to do any online business.
My bank thought they had done everything they could because their computer system told them everything was fine. They gave me a card. They upheld their part of the service.

It took several weeks and several phone calls to every possible contact in my bank.

The result is that according to my bank, there is nothing wrong with the credit card they gave me. They do not know why my credit does not work. But its not their fault. It’s the other guys fault. Their hands are washed.

Not once did I get any form of an apology that my credit card and check book took so long to get to me. And when faced with the problem, the only reaction was to “prove” it’s not their fault.

Not one employee at my French bank would even think to ask: “How can I help you?” and actually follow through. That kind of service is not included in their line of duty.

I’m still left with the problem this card doesn’t work for me. My bank is situated in a major town 40 miles south of Paris. The competition in Paris is greater. I could expect a slightly better level of service in Paris. The temptation to change banks is great. But I’ve been with this bank for over 20 years.

When I changed house a few years ago I did a wide survey of the other local banks. I actually opened bank accounts in three other banks because I wanted a second account in a different bank. But I closed all three accounts because it just wasn’t what I expected from a bank.

Solution: Change branch? Travel into Paris every time something comes up?

My experience was linked to a clash in differences of expectations. I expect a certain service from my bank. For example, I expected my bank to at least be interested in why the credit card they gave me was not working.

But in France they don’t feel it the same way. They offer a certain service. It’s up to me if I want to buy it or not. I can’t question it.

The service I’m expecting as a North American and what they are offering, as a French company, are two different things.

This is easy to see at McDonalds in France if you open your eyes and listen up. McDonalds uses the same system worldwide. It works. But here they employ French staff. In Paris you may or may not notice the difference due to the large number of clients they have to serve and the number of foreign students doing the job. But 40 miles south of Paris, a North American, who understands French, picks up the cultural difference in attitudes towards service.

Service is just different in different cultures.

Cindy King's International Business Blog » international customer expectations

Customer Expectations, Satisfaction & Loyalty

Customer Expectations

Becoming Acquainted

Loyalty In Different Cultures

Customer Centric Marketing

More On International Customer Expectations:

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

International Customer Experience

Response To Customer Needs

Cultural Differences

Process And Questions

Focus On Your International Customer

Use Your Strengths

More On International Customer Expectations:

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

Up-Sell Expectations Across Cultures

A Sales Pitch Late At Night

No Relationship With The Company Intruding On My Privacy

Bad Timing For An Up-Sell

Different Personal Expectations

Different Marketing Expectations

Just A Little Thought Is All It Takes

More On International Customer Expectations:

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides:

Cross Cultural Customer Service Expectations

More On International Customer Expectations:

More In These Get International Clients Business Guides: