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Opinion-Volume 1, No. 1, December 2011

Customer Dissatisfaction - A Valuable Source to Tap Entrepreneurial Opportunity

Pragati Chauhan* Yogita Sharma**

Abstract

Most people would agree that customers are the most important part of a businessno customers, no business. In order to be successful, a business must know who its customers are and what the expectations of those customers are for the product or service the business sells. This paper highlights how customer dissatisfaction creates entrepreneurial white space. Entrepreneur responds to the worlds need and create something new or different. This paper states that anything new offered in the market, is accepted by customer if its better and different than the existing one. This paper explores the attributes to describe customer satisfaction as elaborated by Kanos Model to support the views. Customer search for alternative is a big tool for entrepreneurial innovation is highlighted in this paper. Keywords: Customer Dissatisfaction, Innovation, Discontentment and Satisfaction Attributes

Introduction
Too many people think only of their own profit. But business opportunity seldom knocks on the door of self-centered people. No customer ever goes to a store merely to please the storekeeper. -Kazuo Inamori Competition in todays tensioning market only depends on adopting entrepreneurial strategies based on the present resources and organizational capabilities as the key to identify profitable opportunities. Theses profitable opportunities based on entrepreneurial strategies are called entrepreneurial opportunities. One of the issues during past years and in various other industries that has been considered as the source of entrepreneurial opportunities is the quality of customer service. There

always exists a correlation between the desired results and customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer retention. Without the customer it is impossible for any business to sustain itself. Achieving the desired results is frequently a result of customer actions. Any business without a focus on customer satisfaction is at the mercy of the market. Without loyal customers eventually a competitor will satisfy those desires and your customer retention rate will decrease. If the customers are dissatisfied, it can be valuable source to tap for an upcoming entrepreneur. Entrepreneurship is a mind-set of people - behavior, concept, and theory. Entrepreneurship is not highrisk rather entrepreneurs have the method for what they do. The practice of innovation, the practice of entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial strategies

*Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration Manav Rachna College of Engineering, Faridabad, India **Assistant Professor, Department of Business Administration Manav Rachna College of Engineering, Faridabad, India

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compose innovation and entrepreneurship. Innovation and Entrepreneurship provides the society new products and a solution to their problems in the form of a new product. Peter Drucker has described entrepreneurs as individuals who exploit opportunities that change creates (such as in technology and consumer preferences) and while responding to change, entrepreneurs are individuals who create something new or something different.

connectivity or the quality of drinking water supply depending on their importance to us.

Steps to measure Dissatisfaction

Most people would agree that customers are the most important part of a business - no customers, no business. In order to be successful, a business must know who its customers are and what the expectations of those customers are for the product or service the business sells. . In Six Sigma, that process is known as identifying the voice of the customer (VOC). The key to having success in that process is gathering customer data and converting it into measurable critical-to-satisfaction elements. A well designed satisfaction study will not only tell you how satisfied your customers are but will also identify those areas of greatest importance to your business and how much effort you should put into trying to raise your satisfaction scores in these key areas. The average customer with an unresolved complaint will tell nine to ten people; 13% tell more than 20 people. Up to 70% of complainers will return to your business if their complaint is resolved. Up to 95% return if the problem is resolved quickly. For every one complaint received, the average company has 26 unhappy customers it never hears from; six of these customers have problems that are considered serious problems.

Customer Dissatisfaction
Customer complaints are like medicine. Nobody likes them, but they make us better. Actually, customer complaints are probably more like preventative medicine because they provide advanced warning about problems. Customers who take the time to complain are also taking the time to tell you what went wrong with your process, your product or your communication. It takes some effort for a customer to contact you and tell you how the product, process or communications did not live up to expectations Fundamentally, firms do not sell products or services. They offer solutions to customers problems. Customers pay for them based on the satisfaction they derive from them or the ability of the product or service to solve their problems. In that sense, customers always look for a better alternative to eliminate their dissatisfaction; if one product is found better than another, they buy that. This dissatisfaction caused leads to search for an alternative for the existing products (including services or a change may be desired under the influence of a number of other stimuli such as age, income, habits, interests and knowledge about things available elsewhere. The needs of the customer are dynamic and firms have to understand the changes in needs constantly to eliminate customer dissatisfaction entirely. The extent of dissatisfaction is not the same for all products and services even if they are equally poor on all features. Similarly, the extent of dissatisfaction is not the same for the same product under different conditions and at different points in time. For instance, the extent of dissatisfaction with the quality of a TV channel is not the same when we watch an important programme and at other times. Similar are the feelings with Internet

Data Collection
Satisfaction studies are most effective when conducted over time. A benchmark level of satisfaction is established and then monitored at regular intervals. This type of study may include qualitative research to establish which aspects of products and services are important to the target group. This could take the form of in-depth interviews by telephone, face-to-face focus groups or online focus groups. A research plan is developed in conjunction with our client and implemented using our expert telephone interviewers or a web survey across a larger sample of the target group. Results are fully analyzed and actionable recommendations provided. Setting realistic targets and

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monitoring satisfaction levels regularly can significantly improve the loyalty of the target group. Some customer data is readily available to a business from sources such as customer complaints, warranty claims, customer returns, refunds, etc. Additional customer data may be obtained from surveys, focus groups, face-to-face interviews and feedback cards. Customer surveys are used to elicit quality, service and performance data by asking a standardized set of questions. They are either mailed to customers for them to complete and return or are administered by an interviewer. Focus groups are small groups of customers invited to a meeting and asking for their thoughts and opinions on specific questions. Face-to-face interviews are conducted by an interviewer with individual customers or potential customers who are asked about their experience with specific products or services. Feedback cards are a common method of measuring customer satisfaction and are used by many restaurant and hotel chains to rate elements such as quality, cleanliness, and service.

categories are being driven down over time. Statistical tests and comparative analysis are used to determine whether or not customer attitudes or specific performance measures have changed and if so, whether or not the changes are statistically significant.

Data Interpretation
Once the customer data is analyzed and customer concerns are identified, the information is translated into critical-to-satisfaction requirements for the business. A critical-to-quality (CTQ) tree can help convert customer needs and wants into measurable requirements for products and/or services.

Case Study: Data into Satisfaction Data

The following case study illustrates how a fictitious homebuilding business used customer satisfaction survey data to develop meaningful and measurable critical-tosatisfaction data.

Data Analysis
Gathering customer data is the first step in creating useful information for the business. Once obtained, customer data is analyzed to uncover customer perceptions and satisfaction trends over time. There are multiple tools available to analyze this data and determine whether customer satisfaction is trending positive or negative. A few of the most common tools are: Simple line graphs are used to show whether a specific characteristic is changing over time, getting better or worse, or staying the same. Control charts are used to show whether performance is changing over time and to detect special and assignable causes of variation. Pareto analysis is used to identify the top reasons for customer dissatisfaction. With this information, businesses know which problems to address first to get the most improvement most quickly. Also Pareto charts can show whether defect/reject

Figure 1: Customer Satisfaction

In this example, the business used customer satisfaction surveys to measure performance for the last several years. A line chart showed steadily improving customer satisfaction culminating in a high of 86 points in 2002. But then the annual score plummeted to 82 points in 2003. (Figure 1)Concerned about this degradation, the business analyzed the survey data. A Pareto analysis revealed that the warranty category was 23 percent of the total customer dissatisfaction score and the largest item on the Pareto chart (Figure 2). While scores for warranty-related items were low (worst ratings), warranty was identified as most important to customers.

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Figure 2: Pareto Chart for Customer Dissatisfiers

The warranty data was analyzed further and an additional Pareto chart (Figure 3) was completed to identify the warranty issue more specifically. When needed, customers were interviewed by phone to clarify the issue. The results showed that the primary causes of dissatisfaction with the warranty were the inconvenience and scheduling of mandatory warranty visits during specific time frames and the lack of an additional warranty visit that some competitors provided.

By analyzing the customer survey data and developing the CTQ tree, the business was able to identify critical-to-satisfaction requirements. These requirements became the focus for improving customer satisfaction. The business eliminated the mandatory warranty visits and made all warranty visits optional. Eliminating the mandatory visits satisfied the customers who thought there were too many visits and adding an extra optional visit satisfied the customers who thought there were too few visits. Expanding the time frame for

Figure 3: Pareto Chart for Warranty Dissatisfiers

A critical-to-quality tree was then developed to convert the customer needs/wants to measurable requirements for the business to implement.

scheduling warranty visits from two weeks to three months eliminated the inconvenience for customers who had busy schedules and found the time frame too difficult.

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Figure 4: CTQ Tree

The business took a general, difficult-to-measure need (to improve homeowner warranty satisfaction) and developed specific, measurable and actionable requirements to drive improvements in customer satisfaction.

Elements of Discontentment
When products fail to meet customer expectations, they feel discontented. The four key sources of discontentment are: Product features, Process involved in buying and consumption, and Intangible external variables. Most often deficiencies in product features are major sources of discontentment. This could be design related or manufacturing related. It is very important today that the core features are standardized and the customer need for the peripheral features are also focused and understood. The key processes involved in buying start with collection of information about the product. This could include level of discontentment with reference to adequacy of data. During the process of buying, customers may get discontented for a number of reasons such as lack of

interest shown by sales people, ambience of the location (shop/restaurant) particularly in the case of service business, and the extent to which confidence in the product is built during product demonstration. With respect to delivery, there can be discontentment due to delays, damage in transit and arrogance of deliverers or service people. This can be particularly so for services such as courier and products such as furniture or decorative items. Consumers may get discontented for want of adequate training and instruction on the use of the product as can happen in the case of a washing machine or a product to be self assembled. Discontentment can also arise due to limited number of choices for customers. In that sense, availability of choices can eliminate discontentment. Toys are a category where children always love to have new toys rather than using the same toy again and again, disregarding their price. One of the intangible sources of discontentment is customers knowledge about better products offered elsewhere but denied to them. Discontentment may also be due to knowledge about improved processes existing elsewhere for buying and consumption. Thanks to the Internet and other communication facilities, knowledge dissemination is

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faster now, creating opportunities for some and threat to others.

excitement attributes as possible at a cost the market can bear.

Entrepreneurial opportunity
Where are the opportunities? Entrepreneurial opportunities exist wherever the level of criticality and extent of discontentment peak. These cover not only products but also services required to consume products, traditionally called value chain. According to Michael Porter (1985), value is created in a product through a series of activities in the organization involving all the resources indifferent degrees. Extending the logic, the sources of dissatisfaction are also some or all of these value links. In other words, the role of this chain is to eliminate customer dissatisfaction, and is, therefore, called Customer Dissatisfaction Elimination (CDE) Chain. An analysis of this chain enables us to identify a number of entrepreneurial opportunities in both manufacturing and service sectors. Customer perception to the innovation and its solution also gives rise to innovative entrepreneurs. Higher is the customer discontentment over the existing product, easier it will be for the innovative entrepreneur to cater to it. E.g. Veggi Mix- Alloo Mash entered the market as a faster and a quicker solution to working ladies in metro and slowly penetrated the market. Invertors and Generators found their place due to poor electric supply in the nation. Digital Camera has replaced camera with a real. Satisfaction attributes for each customer differs from each other. The need and requirement of one customer definitely differs from need and requirement of another customer

Figure 5: Kanos Model

Threshold Attributes
Threshold (or basic) attributes are typically called expected attributes or musts of a product, and do not provide any opportunity for differentiation in the product. Even the performance of increasing these attribute do not add much to the customer satisfaction, however the absence or poor performance of these attributes results in the extreme customer dissatisfaction. An example of a threshold attribute would be brakes on a car. Threshold attributes are not taken care in quality function department, this attribute is typically measured to see either it is satisfied or not.

Performance Attributes
This is the attribute which is meant for people for whom more is better, and more of it is, the more satisfied they are. Absence or weaker performance attribute will lead to reduction in customer satisfaction. Of the needs customers verbalize, most will fall into the category of performance attributes. These attributes will form the weighted needs against which product concepts will be evaluated. The price for which customer is willing to pay for a product is closely tied to performance attributes. For example, customers would be willing to pay more for a car that provides them with better fuel efficiency

Kano Model
This is one of the popular models of customer satisfaction which describes how the product attributes are perceived by the customers and what impact it makes on customer satisfaction. The Kano Model of Customer satisfaction (Figure 1) divides product attributes into three categories: threshold (Red zone), performance (yellow zone), and excitement (green zone). A competitive product meets basic attributes, maximizes performances attributes, and includes as many

Excitement Attributes
As the name suggest, excitement attributes creates high degree of excitement among customers, as these

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attributes are unexpected by the customer, and absence of these attribute may not lead to customer dissatisfaction. Excitement attributes often satisfy latent needs real needs of which customers are currently unaware. In a competitive marketplace where manufacturers products provide similar performance, providing excitement attributes that address unknown needs can provide a competitive advantage.

Other Attributes
Products often have attributes that cannot be classified according to the Kano Model. These attributes are often of little or no consequence to the customer, and do not factor into consumer decisions. An example of this type of attribute is a plate listing part numbers can be found at the back or below plate on the electronic gadgets for use by repairpersons. Innovative entrepreneurs take time to discover the root cause of the customers dissatisfaction, and then deal with the situation in a practical manner and develop the product that satisfies their dissonance. They make the customers feel heard and make them believe that their problem will be quickly rectified. For example: if the customer complains that they waited a long time

and no one helped them in the super market, or billing counter at Vishal is excessively crowded and it takes more time to pay the bill, then it takes to collect the material one wishes to buy. Easyday comes out with a solution, and says we give the client more individualized and personalized attention and assures faster check out at billing counters. Bharti Walmart joint venture Easydays marketing manager says we have evaluated every point in the clients buying cycle to determine where our staff may, in fact, have dropped the ball.

Conclusion
Dissatisfied customer in ones business is a source of business opportunity for other entrepreneur, is undoubtedly true. Higher the dissatisfaction, greater the new business opportunity exists. It is also true that loading the customers with unnecessary added features in product, which he/she does not need, pays for to buy it definitely leads to dissatisfaction. Overpricing and under delivery also leads to discontentment. Poor service quality is also today a big area where people switch over the brands or look out for alternative solutions. All this is very useful to identify entrepreneurial opportunities.

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References 1. Innovation in conservative and entrepreneurial firms: Two models of strategic momentum Danny Miller1, Peter H. Friesen2 Strategic Management Journal Volume 3, Issue 1, pages 125, January/March 1982 2. Bearden, William O., and Teel Jesse E., -1983. An investigation of Personal Influences on Consumer Complaining. Journal of Marketing research 20 ( February): 21-28. 3. Christenson, P.S.ans Peterson, R., 1990. Opportunity Identification: Mapping the sources of New Venture Ideas. Paper presented at the 10th annual Babson Entrepreneurship Reseearch conference, April 1990. Denmark: Aarhus University Institute of Management. 4. Customer Dissatisfaction as a Source of Entrepreneurial Opportunity Nanyang Business Review Vol. 2 No. 2 July December 2003 5. Jacobs, Randy, Evaluating Satisfaction with Media Products and Services: An Attribute Based Approach, European Media Management Review, Winter 1999. 6. Colarelli G O., and Rice Mark P., 2001.Opportunity Recognition and Breakthrough Innovation in Large Established Firms, California Management Review, Vol 43: 2, 95:22 7. Ebbena, Jay; Johnson, Alec, Bootstrapping in small firms: An empirical analysis of change over time, Journal of Business Venturing, Volume 21, Issue 6, November 2006, Pages 851-865 8. http://www.isixsigma.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=97:turning-customer-data-intocritical-to-satisfaction-data&Itemid=156 9. http://www.ebusinesschannels.com/pages/resources/quality/Levels.html 10. http:/ / positivesharing.com/ 2006/07/ why-the-customer-is-always-right-results-in-bad-customer-service/