Managing customer expectations

Many factors, including prior interactions, advertising, and promotion, influence how
customers perceive the quality of a service. They often compare the perceived and expected
levels of service. Customers are disappointed if the actual service received is already below
expectations. Another firm that has built its business on exceeding client expectations is
American Express. Successful entrepreneurs include perks in their product which not only
ensure customer satisfaction but also surprise and thrill them by going above and beyond their
expectations.

Ways to manage your customer expectations when times get tough

First, Don’t be afraid to tell the truth. Telling your consumers what's happening as soon as
you can, even if you don't yet have all the answers, is the first step in managing client
expectations. This is a crucial initial step in the process since it helps establish reasonable
expectations right away. Next, Adapt how you speak to your customers. Throughout their
interaction with you, how you communicate with your consumers may make all the difference,
especially when things aren't going according to plan. And Listening to what your customers
are saying. If business as usual gets disrupted, it's simple to cease paying attention to your
consumers. Simply listening to what they have to say can help you better understand how to
support them and how their expectations are evolving. Lastly, Putting the customer above all
else. Customers are the lifeblood of every business, therefore how you treat them and the
experiences you take together will determine how people will remember your brand.
When things are tough, the companies most likely to succeed when things get back to normal
are those that prioritize providing excellent customer service.

Recommendations for Improving Service Quality

Pioneers in conducting academic service research, Berry, Parasuraman, and Zeithaml offer 10
lessons they maintain are essential for improving service quality
across service industries.

1. Listening
2. Reliability
3. Basic Service
4. Service design
5. Recovery
6. Surprising customers
7. Fair play
8. Teamwork
9. Employee Research
10. Servant leadership
Service quality model

The service-quality model highlights the main requirements for delivering high service quality.
It identifies five gaps that prevent successful delivery:

1. Gap between consumer expectation and management perception -

2. Gap between management perception and service-quality specification-
3. Gap between service-quality specifications and service delivery
4. Gap between service delivery and external communications
5. Gap between perceived and expected service

Based on this service-quality model, researchers identified five determinants of service quality,
in descending order of importance:
1. Reliability
2. Responsiveness
3. Assurance
4. Empathy
5. Tangibles
\

Subsequent research has extended the service-quality model. One dynamic process model of
service quality was based on the premise that customer perceptions and expectations of service
quality change over time, but at any one point they are a function of prior expectations about
what will and what should happen during the service encounter, as well as the actual service
delivered during the last contact.83 Tests of the dynamic process model reveal that the two
different types of expectations have opposite effects on perceptions of service quality.

1. Increasing customer expectations of what the firm will deliver can lead to improved
perceptions of overall service quality.
2. Decreasing customer expectations of what the firm should deliver can also lead to improved
perceptions of overall service quality.

The importance of expectations in how customers understand and rate the service has been
extensively studied.

Incorporating Self-Service
Technologies (SSTs)
Self-service technology (SST), which has dramatic implications on how customers engage with
businesses to produce positive service outcomes such as customer happiness, loyalty, and
behavioral intentions, has arisen as a result of decades of comprehensive research on the
subject of service quality. As a result, the primary goal of this study is to investigate how
technology-based services, such as SSTs have an effect on consumer happiness, brand loyalty,
and behavioral intentions in Pakistan's service industry. Through an online survey, information
from 238 SST users was gathered. Structural Equation Modeling is used using the LISREL tool
to test the model. The study's findings indicate a favorable and substantial association between
SST service quality, loyalty, and behavioral intentions, both directly through customer
satisfaction and indirectly through it. These findings provide Pakistan's service industry advice
on how to spend money on new technologies to improve customer happiness, loyalty, and
intentions.
OpenTable
The largest online reservations service in the world is called OpenTable. Technology that allows
people to make reservations at hundreds of different places via its website or mobile app of
dining establishments worldwide.
While SSTs don't always increase service quality, they can make service transactions more
precise, convenient, and faster. Of course, they may also cut expenses. Comverse, a
technological company, calculates the price of answering a question online for about 10 cents
compared to $7 through a call center. One client of Comverse was able to route 200,000 calls
per day saving $52 million a year with online self-service assistance each week.
Every business should consider adopting SSTs to enhance their services. Comcast could
provide less customer services. Since consumers do 40% of its installations and 31% of
customers currently control their totally online accounts.

Managing Product-Support Services

Product-based companies that are required to offer a package of services are equally vital to
service industries.
Equipment manufacturers, including those producing minor appliances, office equipment,
tractors, mainframes, and aircraft, must
offer product-support services, which are becoming a source of competition. Several product
firms
companies must make sure they provide adequate—if not superior—service and have a better
internet presence than previously.
likewise online.

Identifying and Satisfying Customer Needs

Traditionally, customers have had three specific worries about product service:
• They worry about reliability and failure frequency. A farmer may tolerate a combine that will
break down once a year, but not one that goes down two or three times a year.
• They worry about downtime. The longer the downtime, the higher the cost. The customer
counts on the seller’s service dependability—the ability to fix the machine quickly or at least
provide a loaner.
• They worry about out-of-pocket costs. How much does the customer have to spend on regular
maintenance and repair costs?

Postsale Service Strategy

Customer support departments come in a wide range of caliber. Those who just transfer
custody are at one extreme. Tomer makes short follow-up calls to the right person for action.
Departments that push the opposite boundary are keen to promptly respond to requests, ideas,
and complaints from customers. even some businesses
After a deal is made, aggressively engage clients to offer service.
Customer-Service Evolution
Manufacturers typically begin by operating their own parts and service businesses departments.
They want to be near the machinery so they can understand its issues. They also believe it to
be pricey,training others takes time, but if they are the only ones doing it, they may make
excellent money from parts and services.
and can command a higher price as a supplier. In actuality, many producers of equipment set
their prices cheap and
To make up for this, parts and services are very expensive.

The Customer-Service Imperative

However, the number of customer service options is growing quickly, and
makers of equipment increasingly need to figure out ways to profit from their products,
regardless of service agreements. Some new-car warranties now allow consumers to travel up
to 100,000 miles before they must pay for maintenance. Customers are less willing to pay 2
percent to 10 percent of their budget for disposable or never-fail equipment as a result of this.
the annual purchasing price for the service. a business with hundreds of computers, printers,
and other relevant devices having its own service personnel on-site might be less expensive.