Construction Machinery: Stepping out of Satisfaction to Loyalty

The results of the “User Satisfaction Survey of Construction Machinery Industry in 2011” initiated by the China Quality Association and the National Users Committee were announced not long ago. The results of this satisfaction survey show that in the Chinese market, the user satisfaction of self-owned brand construction machinery generally exceeds Foreign brands. In response to this result, senior industry experts said that the overall competitiveness of China's construction machinery industry can already compete with foreign competitors.

At the same time, the market situation in the past two years also confirms this point. According to the survey data of the China Construction Machinery Business Network, since 2010, the market share of self-owned brands for concrete machinery, road machinery and piling machinery has been more than 90%. Taking the excavator market segment as an example, the process of domestic brands gradually replacing foreign brands has been steadily advancing. The market share of excavator self-owned brands reached 39% in the first three quarters of 2011, which is nearly 10 percentage points higher than the 2010 share, including the three ones. More than Komatsu ranked first in the excavator market; the market share of foreign brands dropped from 71% in 2010 to 61%. In addition, the competitiveness of self-owned brands in the international market has also increased dramatically. In the first three quarters of this year, China’s total cumulative export of construction machinery products reached US$11.28 billion, which has exceeded exports for the entire year of 2010.

However, if the user is satisfied and the market share increases, does it mean that the company can sit back and relax? The answer is of course "No". The increase in the satisfaction of construction machinery products and the increase in market share may not necessarily improve the value of users. Only by transforming satisfied users into loyal users can they create relevant value for the company.

The gap between user satisfaction and loyalty User loyalty is a concept derived from user satisfaction. It refers to a psychological tendency of trust, maintenance, and hope for repeated purchase of a certain product brand or company after the user is satisfied. . The difference between user satisfaction and user loyalty is that user satisfaction is the degree to which the user's original expectations were met in past transactions, while user loyalty is the user's willingness to buy again and recommend to others. True user loyalty is an act, and user satisfaction is just an attitude. Obviously, enterprises must have a large number of loyal users to develop. User loyalty should be the most concern for construction machinery companies.

In the “User Loyalty and Satisfaction Study”, China Construction Machinery Business Network uses three main indicators to measure user loyalty. These three indicators are:

1, the overall user satisfaction (very satisfied, more satisfied, basically satisfied, not satisfied, very dissatisfied);

2. The possibility of repeated purchases (partly affirmative, possible, uncertain, probably not, certainly not);

3. The possibility of recommending to others (separate into affirmative, possible, uncertain, probably not, certainly not).

Among them, user satisfaction is the premise of users' loyalty to construction machinery products. Only users who are satisfied with the product can become loyal users in order to accept, disseminate, and recommend products. Loyal users come from satisfied users, but satisfied users are not necessarily loyal users. There is not necessarily a positive correlation between user satisfaction and purchase behavior. According to the Harvard Business Review report, 65% to 85% of users satisfied with the product will choose new alternatives. This phenomenon has also been verified in the actual investigation of the China Construction Machinery Business Network. Those users who expressed "comparatively satisfied" and "very satisfied" with a certain brand in the satisfaction survey questionnaire often choose to compete in the next purchase. The opponent's brand.

The reasons for this are various, but the most important reason is that China, as a big country in the construction machinery industry, is not a strong country in engineering machinery. Now domestic construction machinery companies have entered an era of homogenous proliferation. Further advanced products and technologies and leading service concepts can easily be replicated. Competitors of the same grade are increasing, and users' brand conversion costs are reduced. So the simplest and fastest way to profit is to fight prices. But unfortunately, the long-term price war has brought users immediate benefits, but it has cultivated the user's "non-loyalty". Few users will continue to choose the same brand of products during their use.

Therefore, user satisfaction does not represent user loyalty. If satisfaction increases, but loyalty is still very low, then the company's efforts to make more are in vain.

From user satisfaction to user loyalty, there is no doubt that in order to let users from "one-time purchase" to "re-purchase" to "repeated purchase", let users from "new users" to "return customers" to "loyal users", construction machinery companies To cultivate users' loyalty is far more difficult than satisfying users. How to make users loyal to companies and brands after they are satisfied with their products and services? China Construction Machinery Business Network found through the investigation of end-users that enterprises need to increase user loyalty and obtain stable profits, and need to start from five aspects: product price, product quality, technology innovation, service quality, and corporate brand image.

This requires construction machinery companies to truly understand the customer's potential unsatisfied needs for products and services, and to penetrate the customer's needs into every aspect of business management. At the same time, differentiated loyalty programs are implemented for users with different values, so that users can obtain higher product and service value than other competitors under the same conditions, thereby giving users a sense of superiority and creating lasting customer loyalty.

Therefore, in the era of shrinking construction machinery and market re-segmentation in the construction machinery industry, companies can only grasp the most valuable end-users in the industry value chain through continuous efforts to create customer satisfaction and loyalty, and in the industry adjustment period, large reshuffles Invincible.