The behavior of consumers can affect the way businesses sell their products or services and customer behavior can also drive the demand upward or cause the demand to drop for goods or services being offered by a business in a competitive market place. In other words, a customer’s behavior affects the economics of the business and specifically the demand for the products or services they offer. Today, many businesses are becoming more imaginative about how they get customers to respond to their products or services by resorting to a term called alternative positioning. By changing the customer perception in a positive way, a company can drive demand upward for their goods or services by creating a higher customer satisfaction through their call centers.
Companies in the markets of today are using their call center as the driving force for what is called alternative positioning. Many of the old methods call centers used in the past, such as using scripts by the call center representatives, are not being used anymore by businesses, but instead call center representatives are being taught by their employers to use different techniques to help change and shape the perception of customers they interact with on the phone daily. By using simple teaching techniques to train call center representatives, a business can help increase their position in the market place using their call centers to change the perception of consumers.
One of these simple techniques used by most companies now, is teaching the call center representatives to use simple word choices or phrases while speaking to the customers on the phone. This helps to change and shape the reality of the customer and can create a very positive reaction by the customer towards the company they are doing business with.
Another simple technique many call center’s are using, is teaching call center representatives to use simple words and to cut back on negative words such as “can’t”, “don’t”, “won’t”, and “that’s our policy”, which right away results in negative reactions by the customers towards the business. By creating a positive atmosphere and not using negative words, the customer will be more willing to be a repeat customer.
Other businesses are using call centers to gather basic information about the customers they serve, and then using the same information gathered by the call center representatives to reframe a customer’s perception of the company. By gathering little bits of data on the customer, a company can better tailor their goods or services to consumer needs and wants. Better goods and services geared towards consumers equals more demand for the goods and services being offered.
A company’s call center is the front line in changing the perception of its customers and by using alternative positioning; the company drives the products and services sold to consumers to new heights of success. Using these same simple techniques, businesses will boost a customer’s experience, change a customer’s perceptions of the business as a whole, and by giving the consumer these great experiences, the customer will create more business by telling their friends or acquaintances, thus creating more demand.
Relate It Back To Class Material
Companies that take these types of approach to their business are essentially trying to generate more demand for their goods or services by creating a better customer service experience for the customers they serve. Demand can essentially be explained as the want or desire to possess a good or service for a legal exchange of compensation. These types of practices can also influence the way the consumer’s perceive a company in a competitive market place and ultimately it affects the want or desire to have the goods or services a business may offer. Figure 1 below shows how influencing the customer affects the demand for products or services being offered. As demand rises, the demand curve shifts right from D1 to D2.
Figure 1 – Alternative positioning by using call center representatives
Initially, on the D1 demand curve, the customer would buy a quantity of products, Q1, at a price per unit of P1. Using these alternative position techniques mentioned above, a business will shift the demand of their goods or services to the right, thus shifting the willingness of customers to buy the goods or services at a higher quantity, Q2, essentially paying the same price per unit, P1, as before the demand curve shift.
Another affect is also created when the demand curve shifts from D1 to D2, consumers become more willing to buy the product or service at a higher price per unit, P2. As seen in the figure above, the price per unit moves from P1 to P2 and in the end, the consumer will pay the higher price per unit, P2, for the same quantity of goods or services, Q1, as before the demand curve shifted. In the end, the demand curve shifts to the right causing willing customers to pay for a product or service at a higher price per unit, P2. The reason for this shift is that, essentially, a change in the perception of the consumers in a positive direction gives the customer a greater sense of satisfaction and makes them more willing to come back and buy the goods or services again. The more satisfaction a consumer has, the more likely it is the consumer will recommend the good of service to their friends and family and thus creating a rise in the demand of the goods or services in the end.
Changes like this in a consumers expectations, is essentially what is deemed as a demand shifter. Demand shifters are anything that affects the expectations of consumers in a competitive market place. These demand shifters are used in the demand function to help explain how the demand shifters will ultimately affect the demand of the goods or services combined with other demand factors. Examples of demand shifters include advertising, population, consumer tastes, health scares, and even using positive techniques on the consumer in the call center. By changing the perceptions of the consumers, companies are creating shifts in the demands for the goods and services they produce.
How It Adds To Your Understanding of the World
When building a business, one must understand consumers being served by the business. Understanding how the consumer thinks, feels, and how they make the purchases are essential to the successful of a business. The approach that was given in the article shows that a business can create demand by changing how a consumer thinks and perceives a business as a whole. Creating a positive perception in the market allows a business to survive and compete, especially in a highly competitive market.
There are a lot of businesses in the competitive market place, which means there are possibly many different types of substitutes a consumer can purchase that can take the place of a good or service offered by one company. This type of tactics is really a very simple way for a company to set themselves apart from their competition. It is also a very essential part of customer satisfaction for a business to have a good customer service process in place, so customers have a place to go when they have issues, complaints, or other types of related things.
In today’s market place, there are many different techniques companies are using to connect with the consumers served, besides the ones mentioned above. With the invention of new technologies such as the internet, many companies are using the internet to allow customers to give feedback they need in order to produce a better good or service. With the avid use of social media, a company can drive the demand of their goods or services upward quickly and without the cost of conventional advertisement, finding consumers that really want or need the good or service produced by the company.
The use of these behavior techniques in economics is an interesting way of influencing how demand on a good or service is created through consumer perceptions. Using behavioral economics also shows a relationship in how a business is perceived by consumers helps keep businesses thriving in today’s market place. As the old saying goes, “perception is reality”. If perception is reality, then by shaping the perceptions of consumers, a business is producing an upward demand they need for the goods and services they provide, by shifting their demand curve.
Conclusion
As one can see, the perception of the consumer is everything to a successful business. In a competitive market place, having the competitive advantage can be the difference in thriving or having to exiting the market place. For a business, using a call center as the front line to change those perceptions of a customer by simply changing some of the techniques being used by the call center representative can help produce an upward demand for the goods and services provided by the business. Perception is essential to driving demand upward or moving the demand curve to the right, for a business to set them self apart from the rest of the market place. In the end, the consumer’s behavior is what drives the demand of a particular good or service.
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