Bring Flaws to Life Before Living with Them

The more serious is a malfunction in a product you sell a customer, the more likely it is that the customer will end up satisfied. That University of Alberta and University of Calgary finding does seem odd until you consider the study’s explanation: People are starved for time and pleased with their new acquisitions. If a minor flaw in the item shows up, there’s a tendency to just live with it for a while. Once this happens, inaction inertia sets in. The intention to take care of the problem fades. The irritation with the flaw continues, though.
     In contrast, if there’s a major malfunction, the customer will want to return to the sales outlet promptly. In fact, with the most serious of flaws, the product is unusable. When the retailer solves the problem, the customer is relieved and grateful to the merchant. There might be a residue of irritation about the time and effort to resolve the problem, but that residue is less than what comes from living with the minor problem. In summary, the more serious is a malfunction in a product you sell a customer, the more likely it is that the customer will end up satisfied. The researchers found this to true overall whether the malfunction is continuous, intermittent, or escalating.
     Whatever the severity of the problem, you’d like to know about it so you preserve good relationships with your customers and prune out suppliers of flawed merchandise. It’s good practice to go beyond welcoming complaints. Solicit complaints. Assertively ask your customers to let you know about any problems. The researchers suggest that merchants include periodic maintenance appointments as part of the purchase so the merchants can check for even minor malfunctions.
     Sometimes the flaw is a feature of the product rather than a malfunction. Once the flaw has been brought to your attention, should you encourage the customer to learn to live with it? Some flaws are resolvable. The noise filtering characteristics of hearing aids could be corrected with an adjustment by the audiologist. A broken heater in a car often can be repaired. Other flaws are irresolvable. The size of hearing aids and a car’s acceleration power probably can’t be changed. Researchers at Indiana University and University of Pittsburg find that consumers teach themselves to live with irresolvable attributes until they’re prepared to purchase replacement items.

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Estimate Participative Consumption Durations
Acknowledge Inertia in Consumer Behavior
Analyze Patterns of Complaints
Follow Your Customers Home
Resolve to Investigate by Attribute Type