From Customer Satisfaction To Customer Commitment

Introduction:

There is a difference between a company's ability to achieve customer satisfaction and its ability to secure their long term commitment. Commitment usually is followed by collaboration which leads to the establishment of a partnership. Most customer commitment takes place at the strategic level, where decisions are made based on the information received.

Customer satisfaction versus Customer commitment:

Customer satisfaction	Customer commitment
Short term	Long term
Assessing and meeting needs	Many heroic acts which create loyalty and devotion
Customers feel good as long as their needs are fulfilled	Customers look beyond short term pleasures
Customers are pleased, humored and fulfilled	Customers are dedicated and faithful
Customers remain independent	Customers are interdependent
Customers can be satisfied without being committed	Implies intense, long term loyalty and dedication

There are two major requirements for establishing full commitment: information and behaviour.

It is suggested that the more information is disclosed to customers, the more committed they become.
Commitment could take place at two levels; at the strategic level, where there is a clear indication that the customer organisation has decided to adopt specific products and services, and commitment at the organisational level where customers are committed not only to products and services but also participate in the design, production and delivery of products/ services.
Commitment usually is followed by collaboration which leads to the establishment of a partnership. Collaboration has been defined as follows:

Collaboration is a bilateral mode of managing exchange in which the exchange partners adopt a high level of purposeful co-operation to maintain the trading relationship over time.

Full collaboration is futuristic in nature; it evolves with time and does not require full sets of preconditions. In addition collaboration means that both parties represented share the power to dictate changes equally

A model of total partnership:

Partnership style

Description

Determinants

Partnership in context (PIC)

Dimension which looks at key factors

that establish participants’ belief in the

longevity, stability, and interdependence

Mutual benefits

Commitment

Predisposition (trust, attitudes)

Partnership in action (PIA)

Dimension which looks at the key factors that create the day-to-day

working relationship

Shared knowledge

Distinctive competency and resources

Organisational linkage

Through the six determinants, it highlights total commitment to have a shared destiny.
In reality however, the commitment can be described in terms of a ‘transactional style of relationship’ where the expectations from partnerships are clearly identified and quantifiable.
The above model of total partnership can perhaps be arrived at through a learning period of conducting a series of transactional partnerships successfully, to the point where trust total has been established and where attitudes have been changed in favor of a common destiny.