PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL SATISFACTION AS A VERITABLE PART OF PENSION SCHEME-Odunze Reginald

In the 4ps of Marketing, we talk about the product, price, promotion and the place element, which is the distribution element of marketing; the 4ps have been expanded to 8 Ps and Even 12Ps. But we shall be more interested in the 8 Ps of Marketing which talks about product, price, promotion, place, process, people , permission marketing and Physical and Emotional satisfaction.

Kotler (1980: 9) aptly captured this scenario when he defined marketing in his earlier book as the “set of human activities directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange process. But in his later edition, he tends to overlook this basic element of satisfaction in his definition of marketing.

Leo Burnet said “ Don’t tell me how good you make it, tell me how good it makes when I use it” Le Boeuf (1987;23) stated that customers will exchange their hard earned money for only two reasons:

Good feelings
Solutions to problems.

Continuing Le Boeuf (op cited) stated that the success or failure of any business depends on how many it rewards with two things stated above and how well it does it” and as Francis Rodgers , a former Vice President of Marketing for IBM put it ”The secret is to understand the customers problems and provide solutions so as to help that customer be profitable and feel good about the transactions” Feeling good about a transaction brings out the best in the customer and makes him to be physical and emotionally satisfied.

Therefore the need for customers physical and emotional satisfaction in the pension scheme cannot be over emphasized. This is because when the customer is satisfied and is convinced not beyond reasonable doubt as in the legal profession or beyond points of further dispute as in the physical science but in being firmly convinced within himself that he has made a wise decision will you be able to say that the customer is going to have emotional or physical satisfaction. Each and every one of us have at one time or the other made transactions , having been convinced by the marketer, or the sales person but goes home feeling dissatisfied at that transaction, the result is that the customer develops a deeper hatred about the organization, its product or service and even the sales person.

The reason behind this is that when a customer is fully convinced that he made a decision by himself, and is getting appropriate quality service , the better the customer feels satisfied and will be in better position, to even go as far marketing the product or service to other of his colleagues, creating awareness even when you are not there. Not only that the inexperience and vulnerability of fresh employees makes them susceptible to asking questions from their old colleagues about the state, degree and effectiveness of the pension fund administrators as the present themselves for enrollment to the pension scheme..

You can imagine what the answer will be if you as a pension fund administrator is not going the extra mile to satisfy your customers.

Personal and Emotional satisfaction will always create more customer base to the organizations involved and will definitely lead to a good will. Good will is an intangible assets in most balance sheets of organization and it has monetary value.

When an organization has consistently satisfied its customers, it leads loyalty, customer patronage; pension fund administrators may not understand it now as National Pension Commission has not lifted the window of transfer. As the loyalty and patronage will in turn provide increase in profits, return on investments and spur the organization to contribute positively to the development of the environment or locality in which they find themselves, thereby increasing the intangible assets.