Perceived quality

You may have achieved excellent brand awareness and recognition, 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 brand. 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 brand as higher quality are more satisfied, have higher levels of loyalty and become repeat customers. 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 spend 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 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

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.

  • Performance - Improve factors like customisation, stability (if using a digital product) and security

  • 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 brand

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

  • Consistency. Ensure your visuals, tone of voice, and messaging are aligned across all your platforms. For example, you could be a fun, likeable company or deeply knowledgeable and serious.

  • Connect emotionally. Focus on creating positive experiences above listing product features.

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

  • Create high-quality, engaging content.

  • Add a trust badge. This is a mark of authenticity, such as being a Microsoft Gold Partner.

• 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.

Look to understand these factors:

• How they first heard about you

• Do they know about the types of products you sell

• What they think about the brand’s prices

• How would they describe your brand to a friend or colleague

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

• How the brand makes them feel

• What they like and don’t about it

• What experiences they have had with your brand

Use the following techniques to explore people’s perceptions of your brand.

Focus groups with target customers

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

• Potential customers who have not bought from you before

• If you have several products, you can bring together current customers to better understand your brand

Run a brand perception survey

It is important to focus on potential customers, not just current ones, as 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.