The Agony of Expectations
When I talk to clients about “Customer Service” one of the first things we discuss are the differences that most have seen between expectations and experience.
Every customer, the experts will tell you, has needs and it is up to us to fulfil those
needs. They teach us to ask questions to
determine those needs, to listen actively
to verbal and non-verbal cues, and to then produce the solution to meet them.
Few people take the time to realise that what matters most
to a customer is the expectation that they have that their need(s) will be
satisfied in a particular way. This is
the question that they often fail to ask or address. Yes, the product/service may be delivered,
but the customer remains unsatisfied.
Why? Because their expectations either weren’t met at all,
or were met only to a small degree.
Is it reasonable to understand and meet (if not exceed)
expectations? The answer to that is
simple – what are your reputation and business worth? In some cases, expectations may be low
because that’s what people have been taught.
Budget airlines, for example, are notorious for late
arrivals/departures, poor service (some more than others) high “hidden charges”
for anything from printing a boarding pass to checking in a suitcase). Their logic is: “What do you expect for such
a low price?”.
Where expectations are low and experience is correspondingly
low, then no problem. Where there’s a
disconnect between expectations and experience, you have a potential problem or
delight.
The table below gives an idea of what I’m talking about (I
call it the Expectations vs Experience Grid):
Expectations
|
Experience
|
Customer Reaction
|
Result
|
Low
|
Low
|
Stoicism
|
You get what you pay for
|
High
|
Low
|
Disgust
|
Complaints
|
Low
|
High
|
Delight
|
Repeat business, but…
|
High
|
High
|
Satisfaction
|
This what we expect now…
|
Expressed graphically, it looks like this:
Experience
|
High
| ||||
Delight
|
2
Low
Expectations
High
Experience
|
3
High Expectations
High Experience
|
Satisfaction
| ||
Stoicism
|
1
Low Expectations
Low Experience
|
4
High Expectations
Low Experience
|
Disgust
| ||
Low
|
High
| ||||
Expectations
| |||||
Given a choice, you want customers to be in the top half and
(better still) in the upper left quadrant (quadrant 2). Where you don’t want them to be is the bottom
right (quadrant 4)… If they end up in
the bottom left, well, at least you didn’t lose out, and what did you expect
for the price anyway?
Next: where do you want yourself and/or your organisation to
be seen on the grid? Ideally in quadrant
2, and most coaches tell you to “under-promise but “over-deliver”. Trouble is, customers aren’t that
stupid. Equally, once you perform in
quadrant 2, they’ll come to expect it (moving you to quadrant 3). Complaints arise when they expect quadrant 3,
but get quadrant 4.
Many organisations build up high expectations without
realising it. It can be as simple as
saying “I’ll call you this afternoon”.
In some countries in which I’ve lived and worked, people have said “Set
your expectations low, and you’ll never be disappointed”. What people are talking about is “structuring
expectations” – a phrase that you’ll hear often when it comes to service or
sales. Coaches will tell you to
“structure a customer’s expectations” to ensure that they expect the quality of service they’re about to get (or even a lower
quality) so that, when the quality is higher, they get a “pleasant surprise”.
For me, this is cynical manipulation amounting to lack of
integrity. By all means, be honest, but don’t mislead. Once people realise what you’re doing, the
bond of trust is broken and no matter what you do, they’ll have low
expectations of low service (and treat you/your organisation accordingly). Interestingly, the advertising industry gets
away with this almost every day by claiming that a particular product will make
you more attractive, fitter, happier or more desirable in some form or another.
Does it? Not often.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy to offer solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
Labels: Customer Care, Productivity, Selling, Strategy
posted by William Martin @ 12:26
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