Customer Trust is a Key.

Based on my experience on selling coffee & its bean, then learned from Harley Davidson’s problem on building customers trust. I just realize that both selling & influencing suffer from the similar misconception that success requires us to be aggresively and cleverly push a product or idea. This misunderstanding leads to “inappropriate behaviors”. For example, people can become evasive, aggresive and agreeable or everly talkative. Selling and influencing depends on getting behaviour right, by moderating openness & assertiveness with warmth and competence. Combined with a great product or brand, this goes a long way to building customer trust and loyalty. One of the interesting case is, when Harley-Davidson overcame a turbulent past by building customer trust- one of its most enduring assets. It was one of the USA’s foremost motorbike manufacturers but, by the 1980s, sales fell dramatically following tough competition from affordable high-quality Japanese machines. Harley-Davidson improved quality using the production techniques of Dr. Edward Deming, known as the leading management thinker in the field of quality. The next challenges was to win back, and maintain market share (nowadays Harley-Davidson enjoys a customer trust rate of 90 %).

Knowledge of customers’ needs and appealing to customers’ emotions helped Harley-Davidson to build trust and bond with customers. Their managers meet customers regularly at rallies, where new models are demonstrated. Advertising reinforces the brand image, to promote customer trust. The Harley Owner’s Group or HOG, is a membership club that entrenches customer loyalty, with two-thirds of customers renewing membership. Significantly, Harley-Davidson ensures customers receive benefits from their value. The result is that customers trust Harley-Davidson. This trust is used to develop stronger bonds and greater profits in a virtuous circle.

Here are some insights that we can take:

• Deliver Customers a consistent experience each time they deal with our business
• Be clear about the value proposition. Value proposition is waht we are offering to the customers.
• Provide incentives for new customers to return & reorder. And also, reward loyalty for established customers.
• Continuously improve the process, based on customer feedback.
• Deliver reliability by working with partners and investing resources.
• Be competitive (What seems like a good deal to you may not match your competitors)

“Perhaps the most significant program was — and continues to be — the Harley Owners Group. Dealers regained confidence that Harley could and would be dependable partner. Capturing the ideas of our people was critical to our future success”, Rich Teerlink, Former Chairman of Harley Davidson.

Dedicated to : Jeremy Kourdi & Erwin Michiels