Perceived product quality

You may have achieved excellent product awareness, but this does not mean a customer will buy from you. Before you make a sale, customers will build up an opinion of your brand and products. This is known as perceived quality. Perceived quality is a bias towards or against a particular product. It is the view customers have of you and is subjective. They form expectations based on rational (numbers and facts) and emotional (feelings) factors. Knowledge that impacts their choice can come from many sources, such as their own experience, customer reviews, friends, media reports, etc. Customers who perceive a product as higher quality are more satisfied, have higher levels of loyalty and become repeat customers. The Harvard Business Review found that customers who rate a product as “high quality” are:

• 2.6x more likely to buy again.

• 3x more likely to recommend it to others.

The customer’s post-purchase view of quality will be based on them comparing perceived quality to what they received. It is, therefore, important that you match your advertising and marketing claims.

Improved financial performance is strongly linked to perceived quality:

• A significant factor in customer choice.

• Customers will likely pay more and buy more frequently.

• Decreased spending on marketing as customers recommend you to others.

• Extremely important for sales when there are few differentiators between competitors.

Many factors impact perceived product quality. These can placed into the following categories:

• Intrinsic - The product features, differentiators and quality.

• Extrinsic - Factors outside of the product, such as the price or the brand’s or product’s website design.

• Personal - Customer’s expectations, needs and previous experience.

• Situational - Where the product is sold, for example, you demonstrate it at a well-respected conference.

The dangers of poor product quality

The perception of a brand can take a long time to be built or eroded. This is not the same with a product. One poor experience can result in a customer quickly dismissing it.

Improving perceived quality for a target customer group

• Improve your products:

  • Design - Aspects of design quality such as accessibility, usability and consistency should be reviewed and issues addressed. The User experience canvas can help assess your maturity.

  • Performance - Improve factors like customisation, stability (if using a digital product) and security. The User experience canvas can help assess your maturity.

  • Product differentiators - Offer valuable features that others don’t have. You may also differentiate by design and performance characteristics.

  • Create an emphasis on quality attributes.

• Counter negative reviews:

  • Respond fast. Your existing customers will have strong opinions on your value, having used your product. These views can be made public and potential customers will take them seriously. The impact of bad reviews on potential customers is significant. Giving solutions to issues and responding to misinformation in real time is recommended. Identify the channels where you are mentioned regularly and monitor these, then respond in real time to negative reviews.

  • Identify trends. As customers research you, they may find negative trends. Amazon, for example, now uses AI to summarise what customers are saying about a product. Seek to address these weaknesses, especially if they are big reasons customers select competitors.

• Improving the perceived quality of your product:

  • Customer testimonials. Customer testimonials help create product awareness but can also increase perceived quality. This is done by the customer discussing the benefits they have achieved, ideally numerically.

  • Align with a good cause. Ideally one that has something to do with your product.

  • Create high-quality, engaging content.

  • Use a trust badge as a mark of authenticity. For example, implementing ISO 27001 (Information Security Management) demonstrates a commitment to security.

• Partner with prestigious brands.

• Be socially responsible.

• Excellent customer service:

  • Provide quick and efficient post-purchase support, such as answering product questions, processing refunds and maintenance

  • Offer compensation guarantees upfront

    • Replacement (if relevant)

    • Credit towards another purchase

    • Money back

• For B2B (Business-to-business) customers, focus on building strong personal relationships. Have experts on hand to guide customers through any questions they have.

• Pricing:

  • Raise your prices to give the impression of quality. Pricing too cheap may give the view that you are of lower quality. This is very dependent on how knowledgeable your customers are, so use this tactic with caution.

  • You can raise pricing and then offer discounts to appear better value

  • Use charm pricing. For example, £6.99 per month rather than £7

• Create demand by introducing scarcity. For example, you offer only 20 places on a training course.

Measuring perceived quality

Information can be gathered in two different ways:

• Quantitative data - Gathering numerical data, such as asking a question with four options.

• Qualitative insights - Helping to understand the “why” behind people’s answers. This is often in the form of open questions. You can use these to further understand the root causes of people’s answers. Evaluating information in this way is typically slower, but it can provide much deeper insight than quantitative techniques.

Process steps

• Identify potential customers that meet this criteria. You should differentiate between these in your research.

  • Customers who have not bought from you before.

  • Customers who have bought other products from you before.

• Seek to understand these factors:

  • How they first heard about your product.

  • How much they know about your product.

  • What they think about the product’s pricing.

  • How would they describe your product to a friend or colleague.

  • What they associate with the product, e.g. high quality, friendly, good value.

  • How the product makes them feel.

  • What they like and don’t about it.

  • What experiences they have had with it.

• Use the following techniques to explore people’s perceptions of your product using the factors above.

Focus groups with target customers

Focus groups allow people to share thoughts in a moderated setting.

Run a product perception survey

This type of survey can give an indication as to whether or not they will buy from you. Market research organisations will be able to assist here. Begin by qualifying people by those who have heard of you, then if they have bought from you before.

Create an online forum

By allowing open conversations and questions from potential new customers, you will be able to understand their views better. You could ask survey questions within the forum to gain insights.