Have you ever thought about what your customers think about your brand? 

Are they satisfied using your products and services?

How do you know whether they have a positive or negative opinion of your company? 

If you don’t have answers to all the above questions, then no need to worry because you are not alone. The solution to all the above queries lies within your customers. 

Customer perception is an important factor for any brand’s success as it will decide if your brand will make it into the competition or not. Brand perceptions change daily due to evolving technologies or when users are influenced by word-of-mouth referrals from their family and friends or due to their online and offline experiences. 

When companies provide digital customer experience and get favorable opinions about their products, they achieve success each year. On the other hand, a business that gets poor responses generally strives to achieve better results to survive in the digital world. 

A beneficial customer perception develops when you deliver high-quality services by keeping the value of your audience in mind. Working on consumer behaviour perception is vital for your organization as it can impact your retention rate, capital, and acquisition rate. 

It has always been difficult to understand the perception of a buyer as it is subjective and varies from person to person but that does not mean that you completely ignore it. With just one bad experience, buyers can switch with the brand and work with your competitors but you can always have scope to improve their opinions. 

This guide will give you a clear picture of what is client perception, why is it important, the factors that influence them, how to measure perceptions, and methods to improve their opinions. 

What Is Customer Perception?

Consumer perception refers to a person’s feelings, opinions, or beliefs toward a brand or its products and services. It summarizes the opinion about a brand based on direct and indirect interactions and experiences that develops after some time. 

There are both qualitative and quantitative data related to your prices, policies, products, services, and attitudes and values toward your users. Perception in marketing plays a major role in spreading brand awareness and building its reputation. It can be either positive or negative and generally involves 3 stages:

1.Sensing Stage

It involves the physical senses of users i.e. touch, hear, feel, or taste of a product. 

For example – Seeing different branded products at a retail store or feeling an ambiance, or hearing the music playing in the background. 

2. Organizing Stage

After the consumer experiences sensory feelings, their mind starts organizing different things. 

For example – If a person wants to eat in a restaurant, then he/she may choose that based on various factors such as distance from their house, price, or even hygiene. 

3. Reaction Stage

It is a stage where a buyer acts and makes decisions. 

For example – Buying a product they selected from a company.

You can also measure consumer perceptions of a brand by using various qualitative and quantitative data or using feedback reports or surveys to get the most accurate results. For generating a better report about your brand perception, consider using a customer feedback tool to gather more details about your customer base. 

Why is Customer Perception Important For Any Business?

According to a survey by PWC, 17% of people in the US leave a brand if they face just one bad experience with them. Great perception of a brand is vital to any company as, without this, a business cannot survive in the market. 

Suppose a shopper is frustrated and upset with the services of your brand and decides to unsubscribe from your business or posts a bad online review. You might consider this as a single loss but this can go too far and he/she can do bad mouth publicity and tell others not to use your products. 

But a favorable client experience can create a great impact on the mind of people. A person might tell their family members about a store that sells shoes at lower prices with great quality. Positive experiences of a user can generate more sales and leads and can contribute to the company’s success. 

You can also encourage them to repeat purchases so that they can recommend your goods to others. A satisfactory perception in marketing affects the key metrics of your business such as sales, lead generation, retention rate, customer churn rate, and conversions. 

Consumer behaviour perception is important due to several reasons:

1. Develops the reputation of a brand

When your happy clients talk about your business in favorable terms to other people, it can build your brand’s reputation in a greater way due to brand awareness. 

2. Build trust and loyalty

A brand that gets a confident impression in the market, gains a superior level of loyalty and trust from its customers and they will forever stick to your company.

3. Generates more sales and revenue

Consumer always wants to interact with a brand they could rely on so that they can purchase more goods from them and take benefit from their customer service. This in turn increases sales and generates more profits for a company. 

Factors That Influence Customer Perception

Your clients get influenced by internal and external factors that affect their opinions about a brand. 

1. Pricing

A shopper generally prioritizes the price of a product as it involves different perceptions that are used to compare with other brands. A company should decide on price by performing market research, financial needs, and competitors’ practices. 

2. Usage of the goods

Buyers want to interact with a product that is easy to use and has clear instructions written on its back, should be widely accessible and written in a straightforward language, and easily solves their problems. 

3. Quality of customer service

Delivering impeccable customer service is one of the key factors to be taken care of while improving brand perceptions as providing superior customer service is crucial for any company. This makes them feel valued, respected, heard, and appreciated. 

When agents of your customer service outsourcing company will solve the issues quickly, it will leave a good perception of your brand and your clients will tell others about your business. 

For instance, a report shows that 87% of users share good experiences with others while 95% of customers tell bad experiences with your company.

4. Previous experience

You can generate a loyal customer base by delivering fruitful experiences in every customer interaction that can impact their opinions about consumer perceptions. 

5. Quality

This greatly affects consumer behaviour perception as when their expectation exceeds by using your product they will feel a good deal about it and as a result they will come back to your business again. 

6. The reputation of your company

Customer perception develops when your audience hears stories and news about your brand from their friends or family members as it creates a  worthwhile attitude and reputation toward your business. 

7. Location

Buyers look for convenience and the position of a business in a particular area or a region can greatly impact whether your shoppers want to purchase your product or not. Your products should be available in your target market and be accessible online. 

8. Reviews of clients

It has been found that 93% of users check reviews online before they make a purchase. Therefore, positive or negative feedback can create a huge impact on prospects who want to buy from you. You should also look for negative reviews and reply to them with ease as it spreads a beneficial impact on the users. 

Almost 79% of customers trust online reviews similar to the recommendation made by their people to them. It is a useful indicator to improve your client experience and service. 

9. Recommendations

If you want to increase your conversions and sales exponentially, then you need to come up with strategies that affect your brand perception in a great way. Consumers perceive information from their family members, friends, or influencers. 

Word-of-mouth can also include microblogs, social media posts, and online reviews of shoppers. Recommending products to another user builds trust and a good impression of a company.

 10. Marketing

Your social media posts, website, and traditional advertisements play a major role in building a public image, so you should stay consistent across these mediums to constantly attract new audiences. 

The messages that your brand delivers tell a lot about your company such as how you are better than your competitors and the values that you provide to people. You need to focus on providing high-quality and sharable content to become a leader in your niche. 

5 Ways To Measure Your Customer Perceptions

Consumer behaviour perception impacts every part of your company but it can be accessed with the help of a few key measures.

1. Track and analyze NPS and CSAT score

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is one of the popular survey methods which aims to focus on how likely a consumer is loyal and enjoys your brand and will recommend it to others about it. 

It is a short-format survey method that results in high response rates. It can be sent to users via email or can be used on your website or app. This informs about customer feelings towards a product and what they like and dislike in the journey. 

On the other hand, CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Survey) lets customers give quantitative feedback or review which shows how they feel and think about your business. You can also ask them open-ended questions and based on that, they give you the score. This will let you know if they are happy and if their issues are resolved or not. 

2. Track customer effort scores

This score measures how your clients are putting in effort and interacting with your company. Their answers will let you know how difficult it was to solve their problems with your products. 

For example – How was their first experience using your goods? or Was it easy for them to contact your support team?

3. Interview your clients

If you need an in-depth opinion, you can interview your clients and ask them different questions. 

For example – How did they know about your company? How did they sign-up?

4. Monitor social media mentions

Social media monitoring and listening show various engagements on how your users talk about your brand on online platforms. The tool generates insights and true opinions and lets you reply to comments quickly. 

You can carefully deal with positive and negative interactions that affect the perception of a brand. Companies these days keep an eye on online mentions so that they can solve the concerns of their subscribers. 

5. Analyze reviews and ratings

Reviews and ratings can be used easily to effectively communicate with upset customers and identify their pain points so that you can take measures to resolve them. This can be both good and bad and entirely depends on the experience of your users. 

10 Ways To Create A Positive Customer Perception Of Your Brand

Customers stay trustworthy in your brand if they get a good experience and quality products. Perception in marketing develops when you use a powerful customer feedback strategy. 

Here are some ways by which you can ensure that your clients see your business in the best possible manner. 

1. Identity who your target audience is

You can be universal and loved by all types of people but you need to clearly understand whom you are focusing on and satisfy their needs. In this case, you need to know your buyer’s persona such as age, gender, language, and demographics. 

After this, you identify your target audience who are more suitable for using your goods. For the growth of your business, you need to analyze how your shoppers interact with one another, how they consume information about your product, why they chose your business, and how they came to conclusions about your brand’s perceptions. 

2. Know their pain points

You always need to fill the gap between buyers’ expectations and the final delivery. When you properly listen to the users and know their obstacles, you will be able to work in that area to enhance customer service and experience and create an extraordinary brand perception.

3. Work on your response time

A negative customer perception develops when a user has to wait for a response for a longer time. They need an immediate reply and help from your side as when you will take too much time, they will get frustrated. 

So, always focus on lowering your response time for a fruitful customer lifecycle management process. 

4. Enhance your customer experience

From landing on your website to visiting the store, each sector is vital for imparting customer experience. Perception in marketing develops when a company gets either positive or negative responses about its products. 

You need to identify areas that need to be improved so that you can take appropriate measures to make your shoppers feel good about your business. 

For example – lowering waiting times, offering a wide range of products, letting them know about your digital presence, and using proper language. 

5. Upgrading customer service

Companies prepare strategies to exceed the expectations of their consumers through their services so that shoppers can make more purchases. 

This can be done when you clearly outline your customer journey map, train your employees, reward the agents who work on providing the best customer service, and conduct surveys to know the experiences of users. 

6. Be consistent

To maintain consistency, you need to focus on providing value to the users that include integrity, respect, and focusing on their needs for achieving productive consumer perceptions. 

If you know how to approach and solve complex customer problems, then you will never lack in maintaining the quality of products and providing them with exceptional values and services whenever they interact with your business. 

7. Use positive language

Consumer perception develops when an agent uses language that doesn’t harm the sentiments of users and that let them understand more information about your products and offerings easily. 

By using natural emotions and languages, you will increase the satisfaction level and loyalty of your prospects. 

8. Make your organization customer-centric

Employees play a major role in developing a perception of a brand as they influence the feelings of your customers. You need to create a customer-centric culture in an organization by empowering and motivating your workers to deliver the best service. 

According to research, 70% of shoppers’ experiences are focused on the feelings of how a company treated them. With this approach, you will be able to develop meaningful relationships with your trusted clients and offer them real-time customer support. 

It has also been found that companies that focus more on their buyers are 60% more profitable. 

9. Keep taking follow-ups

When you will motivate your customers to return to your business, it will improve loyalty and trust and let you build a strong bond with them. 

By sending follow-up messages, you can reduce the churn rate and improve the experiences of your audiences and as a result, you can create good brand perceptions so that they can upgrade or buy a new product from you. 

 10. Gather feedback from customers

By collecting their reviews, you can know how exactly they feel about your business. Perception develops when they appreciate you for asking them for their opinions and suggestions. 

For example – Collect feedback through questionnaires, surveys, or interviews for an in-depth opinion. 

Conclusion – Grow Your Business Smartly By Modifying Your Customer Perceptions 

The expectations of customers are increasing rapidly each day. They want that your company should easily solve their complex issues. 

You need to provide them with values and change their attitude towards your business by working in a customer-centric manner. A positive consumer behaviour perception will ultimately improve your retention rate and boosts conversions. 

By gathering opinions through surveys, interviews, or questionnaires, you will have a clear picture that shows in which area you lack in delivering customer service so that you can start working on those sectors of your company. 

This is the best trick as it will ultimately make them feel good about your services. It will also make them recommend your products to their friends and family members which as a result grows your customer base. 

You can also check out our blog “12 customer service software to use in 2022” to deliver exceptional service to your clients.