Article on Managing Customer Expectations and does Satisfaction depends on Customer Perception

INTRODUCTION:
Delivering quality service consistently gives a competitive edge to service organizations. It requires an understanding of customer expectations and the types of expectations. Further, knowledge of factors influencing the desired service level, adequate service level, and zone of tolerance will help service organizations consistently meet and exceed service expectations of customers.

While evaluating service offered by an organization, customers compare perceived quality of service with the expected quality of service. Therefore, service organizations should have knowledge about customer perceptions and the influence of factors such as service encounter, service evidence, image of the service organization, and price of the service on customer perceptions.

Service organizations should also attempt to understand the various types of service encounters like remote, face-to-face, and phone encounters to be able to understand customer perceptions. They should examine the factors that influence customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction, like recovery, adaptability, spontaneity, and coping and innovate strategies to influence customer perceptions. NEED AND PURPOSE: As a service provider, we can provide customers with excellent services, they require only if you accurately identify their Needs/ Expectations. In todays scenario, Service provider plays a crucial role in meeting up with the customer expectations and perceptions, in order to make customer delight through long run relationship. In order to sustain in the market for a period of long run, an organization with best quality service is only the factor which gives a competitive edge over others. OBJECTIVE: To manage customer expectations by meeting up with customer perceptions in order to keep customer satisfied all the time.

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Article on Managing Customer Expectations and does Satisfaction depends on Customer Perception

SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS:

If every service provider starts managing customer expectations in order to make customers satisfied then he/she may become loyal towards organization which not only brings profits to the company but also creates value in the minds of the customer. On the other hand, a service provider must limit his service to the greatest extent because at some time customer would feel more about the organization and places an order in that case customer expectations and perception about the service does not match then customer would feel that It is not satisfied, even though the provider afford his best service means the provider gives his best service to that customer but there are factors which make customer to feel it is bad. The factors may be mental stress, surroundings etc... The service provider also should keep this in his/her mind that customer get satisfied only when he/she match up with expectations and perceptions. If any fall in perceptions with respect to expectations and vice versa, would definitely create a sort of unlike ness about the service delivered by the customer.

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Article on Managing Customer Expectations and does Satisfaction depends on Customer Perception

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
Data Data collected was mainly secondary data. Source of Data Company Archives Numerous literatures Like articles, PDFs etc...

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
I have referred many articles and journals, Books for formulating my article... For any service provider, customer expectations can pose a major challenge. That's because expectations are wondrous creatures: They grow, they shrink, they change shape, they change direction. They shift constantly, and they shift easily. And how satisfied (or dissatisfied) your customers are is determined by these expectations and your performance in meeting them. Of course, customer satisfaction is influenced by a complex interplay of factors; it's hardly as simple as plugging numbers into a formula and calculating the result. Nevertheless, this calculation serves as a reminder that your customers' level of satisfaction can be affected by changes in either their expectations or your performance. That means you have to pay attention to both. And that's where things can get tricky, because how you perceive your performance may differ from how your customers perceive it. In fact, discrepancies between your perceptions and theirs would not be at all unusual; I routinely encounter such discrepancies when I interview a company's service staff as well as its customers. So, even if you're working yourself to the proverbial bone, if customers view you as unresponsive, then you are unresponsive in their eyes.

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Article on Managing Customer Expectations and does Satisfaction depends on Customer Perception

The reverse is also true: If you really are unresponsive, but customers perceive that you deliver superior service, then you do (in their eyes), and you gain little by trying to convince them otherwise. I'm not advocating bumble headed service, of course, but merely emphasizing that customer satisfaction is driven by their perceptions, not yours. Their perceptions are their reality, and any overlap between their view of the world and your own may be simply one of those delightful coincidences. Now, switch back to your service provider hat and think about it: Both the product and the process are important to customers. The product refers to the solution, system, response, resolution, deliverable or result. Whatever form the product takes, customers want it to work properly, to meet their needs, and to have that elusive quality of, well, quality. This is the technical element of service, and you're not likely to have happy customers without it. But excelling in the technical element alone may not keep customers coming back unless you also attend to the process. In fact, for many customers, the process is more important than the product. The process concerns how customers feel they've been treated. This is the human element of service. And touchy-feely though it may appear, the human element is exceedingly important in achieving a high level of customer satisfaction. The following thing to be taken care of by the service provider while offering service to any customer...

1. To be taken seriously 2. Competent, efficient service 3. Anticipation of my needs 4. Explanations in my terms 5. Basic courtesies 6. To be informed of the options

10. Knowledgeable help 11. Friendliness 12. To be kept informed 13. Follow-through 14. Honesty 15. Feedback
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Article on Managing Customer Expectations and does Satisfaction depends on Customer Perception

7. Not to be passed around

16. Professional service

8. To be listened to (and heard)

17. Empathy

9. Dedicated attention

18. Respect

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

The findings I found from my research on Managing customer expectations, perceptions and satisfaction are...
Know What Customers Value

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Article on Managing Customer Expectations and does Satisfaction depends on Customer Perception

You may already be aware of the required mix of speed, quality, and price for optimizing your small business operations and for assuring that these correspond closely to your customers expectations. However, assessing market conditions to find out customer priorities may be in order if you are unsure about what is needed in these areas. Gearing your small business to align with customer values is vital to your overall long-range success. Spell It Out When managing customer expectations, you cannot expect customers to honor your requirements and expectations if they are unaware of them. Be as clear and explicit as possible at the front end. Communicate what a particular quote includes and what it doesnt, and what you are going to do as well as what you are not going to do. However, keep in mind that too much detail may only lead to confusion and conflict. Arrange both you and your customers responsibilities and rights sequentially in documents or summaries. Restate customer expectations and duties at every milestone, including provider and client deliverables. Avoid turning this into an authoritarian process; it should allow room for give-and-take, because customers expect you to be somewhat flexible. Even so, take special care to be sure that any trade-offs agreed to are clearly understood. Know What Your Competitors Are Offering The problem with choosing the high road and following a policy of under-promising and over-delivering is that shady competitors may adopt the former and fail to fulfil the latter. There is always the possibility that you may find new business by rescuing customers from failed deals; even so, its a good policy to keep the records straight at every juncture.

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Article on Managing Customer Expectations and does Satisfaction depends on Customer Perception

Keep abreast of the promises competitors are making and check out their validity when managing customer expectations. You may come across certain promises that other organizations are making that you know your company cannot fulfill. If you do business this way, savvy customers will learn to take anything you say with a grain of salt. Honesty in dealing with your customers is the best policy. Even if you have to turn down some business, making promises you cannot keep is just not a good business practice. Be Scrupulous In Keeping Your Promises Failure to live up to customer expectations will cost you business it is as simple as that. Not delivering services on time, for example, will lead to misgivings regarding your dedication to your customers. Develop a reputation for making realistic commitments and standing by them. If you do this, customers will be willing to accept your terms - even if they are not quite as good as those of other less-reliable businesses. If your customers' satisfaction level is shifting, quickly find out why. Perhaps the customers situation has changed; however, you must explore the possibility that you have failed in some way. Ask yourself if the situation can be fixed, or if you should just bite the bullet and move on. If the level of customer dissatisfaction is on the increase, find out the underlying reason. On the other hand, if it is going down, try to figure out what caused it to increase in the first place so you can take measures to prevent it from happening in the future. There are times when people become so engrossed in being punctual in delivering services that they unknowingly overlook other factors which influence customer

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Article on Managing Customer Expectations and does Satisfaction depends on Customer Perception

satisfaction. Conscientiously observe the customers environment as well as your own, and youll be able to control and exceed customer expectations.

Scope of further research

My research was completely focused on Integration of SCM and CRM. Its to be mentioned that already many companies had gone for integration of SCM and CRM. Now its ERP which is integrated with SCM and CRM. My research can be extended to know how companies are performing with ERP into it. While collecting secondary data I came across software giant Dell, where company now follows the strategy of integrating ERP with SCM and CRM. Scope can be further extended to find out the performance in FMCG companies too where integration should have give optimal result.

Conclusion
Today, the challenge of business is integration. Many companies start to implement sections of CRM, SCM, and ERP and so on. But there is just one way to get maximize revenue and profits: synchronize supply and demand in real time while all these applications help a business to manage the important parts of supply chain operation, interaction with customers, order tracking and parts purchasing although its neither SCM nor CRM. In other words, considering SCM and CRM separately can result in missed opportunities and poor performance. Some bridges are necessary
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Article on Managing Customer Expectations and does Satisfaction depends on Customer Perception

between them that are enterprises should consider. And it's not possible without an integrated strategy. As a result an e-business model can help to step forward and guaranty success.

Bibliography
Apart from the 15 articles mentioned in Literature review following are the online references Gooley T. B, Mass customization: How logistics makes it happen in Logistic Management & Distribution Bernhard Selk and Klaus Turowski, Information system design for demanddriven supply networks Integrating CRM & SCM Koudal and Lavieri, Functional capabilities achieved by integrating SCM and CRM Holger Kisker, ERP SCM integration expands manufacturing options Alan Earls, Introduction to SCM CRM integration J. Woods, A. White, K. Peterson & M. Jimenez, "Demand Chain Management Synchronizes CRM and SCM" Bernhard Selk, Klaus Turowski, Christian Winnewisser , Information system design for demand-driven supply networks Integrating CRM & SCM Gray, Mike (2003). SCM @ Dell Inc. Retrieved from http://www/napm.org/ConfPastAndOnlineDaily/Files/Nov03/TBGray.pdf

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