Managing Customer Expectations

MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS

Objectives

• At the end of this training, you will be able to • Identify the elements of a good customer service

encounter• Note the two elements of service that must be

provided to meet every customer’s basic expectations

• Identify key expectations customers have of service providers and how to influence these expectations

• Determine how to handle customer complaints and ensure service recovery

Content

• The Customer Service Encounter• Customer Expectations… What are they?• Managing and Influencing Customer Expectations• Handling Customer Complaints • Service Recovery

SESSION ONETHE CUSTOMER SERVICE ENCOUNTER

Customer Service

• Customer service is an organization's ability to identify and supply their customers' wants and needs.

• The Institute of Customer Service (ICS) defines it as

“…The sum total of what an organization does to

1. meet customer expectations and 2. produce customer

satisfaction. ..”

Customer Service

• You therefore, need to know what the customer’s expectations are to ensure • Customer satisfaction • That activities are occurring as expected• That deliverables or output meet expectations• That deliverables are received when expected• That anticipated value is received

The Customer Service Encounter

• An interaction you have with your customers • face to face / in person• by e-mail• over the telephone• anything that involves an “exchange” of

• information, advice, ideas, physical resources, etc


• During a service encounter the customer will form a judgement on the service provided based on their personal:• expectations• perceptions• desires• feelings• needs• wants• values


• Based on the quality of the service encounter a customer will either be • satisfied, • dissatisfied or • delighted.

• Knowing a customer’s expectation is instrumental in developing a strategy for meeting and exceeding customer expectations.


The three general levels of customer service:

• Poor:

• Acceptable:

• Excellent:

• failure to meet customers’ expectations

• customers’ expectations are met but not exceeded

• customers’ expectations are exceeded

The 10 Attributes of Good Customer Service

• The 4 ‘management’ attributes• Security:

• safety of the environment and the customers • Tangibles:

• products, resources• Access:

• ease of access to service, opening hours• Reliability:

• does equipment work properly, robust operational procedures


• The 6 “soft” attributes• Courtesy:

• politeness and respect for others• Communication:

• staff have appropriate interpersonal skills• Competence:

• staff have been trained to an appropriate level


• Responsiveness: • willingness to help, go the “extra mile”

• Credibility:• customer-centric: customer first, will you keep

your promises?• Understanding the customer:

• talk and listen to your customers, are you giving them the service they require?

SESSION 2CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS…WHAT ARE

THEY?

Customer Expectations?

• Expectations…• What are they?

• They are your customer’s vision of a future state or action, usually unstated but which is critical to your success.

• Expectations are not constant, they constantly change over time, usually becoming more demanding and are influenced by their previous experiences and their experiences of dealing with other organisations, particularly your competitors.


• Quality of a service is about customer expectation and perception.

• Exactly the same product or service may be perceived as being good or poor depending upon the customer’s expectations.


• So what do customers expect from you the service provider?


• When you're a customer, what matters to you? • What matters when you're

• At the hospital• At the Trotro station? • Buying food stuff from the market or buying from a

shop?• Going to pay your electricity or water bill?• Buying waakye at the roadside?


• A survey was carried out to sample customer expectations and the responses obtained were very similar, demonstrating that most of us want the same things when we are customers

When I’m a customer, I want

To be taken seriously

Competent, efficient service

Anticipation of my needs

Explanations in my terms

Basic courtesies

To be informed of the options

Not to be passed around

To be listened to (and heard)

Dedicated attention

When I’m a customer, I want

Knowledgeable help

Friendliness

To be kept informed

Follow-through

Honesty

Feedback

Professional service

Empathy

Respect


Customer expectations can also vary depending on the situation customers find themselves.

PolitePatientIntelligentConfidentCompetent

CharmingHumorousAccurateRespectfulHonest

Good-lookingWell-dressedInformedEnthusiasticReliable

AlertClean

Consider the following customer expectations:


• There are two elements to customer service delivery

Technical Element Human

Element


• The technical element refers to the product • The solution, loan, system, response, resolution, deliverable

or result or whatever you are providing your customers. • Whatever form the product takes, customers want it to

work properly, to meet their needs, • This is the technical element of service, and you will not

have happy customers without it.

• But excelling in the technical element alone may not keep customers coming back unless you also excel in the process.


• The human element refers to the process• How customers feel they have been treated.

• Not how customers are treated! How they feel they have been treated.

• This is the human element of service which is exceedingly important in achieving a high level of customer satisfaction.

• In fact, for many customers, the process is more important than the product.


• For example, a person visits a restaurant primarily for the food it serves. • That is the customer’s need/technical element.

• However, the customer expects polite staff, attentive yet non intrusive service and a pleasant ambience. • The human element.

• If these expectations are not properly met the guest would leave the restaurant dissatisfied even if the technical aspect, which is eating a meal, has been met.


All customers are likely to have special needs, which organizations must cater for. These needs may be related to:

circumstances – requiring a product or information before a certain time or for a set purpose

personal requirements – needing a product or information customized or adapted in a specific way

individual traits – requiring different products or information because of beliefs, age, fashion preferences, etc.

disability – needing special help due to problemswith mobility or another impairment.

SESSION THREEMANAGING AND INFLUENCING CUSTOMER

EXPECTATIONS

Managing Customer Expectations

• At every stage in the customer’s relationship with your organization or in the buying process, customers have a different set of expectations.

• At the pre-purchase stage when customers are still in doubt on whether to establish a relationship with your organization

What would their expectations be?

• During the customer service encounter, when they are in the process of using your services • What would their expectations be?

• After the service has been accessed, • what would be their expectations of you ?

Managing Customer Expectations Prior to Purchase

Learn what customers expect. Ask employees and customers.

Tell customers what to expect.

Consistently provide the service customers expect.This concretizes their expectations

Managing Customer Expectations during Service Encounter

Communicate with customers during the service.

If possible, modify the service to meet customer

expectations orexplain why service cannot be modified.

Managing Customer Expectations after the Purchase

Communicate - were expectations met?Follow up on customers to get their viewsDevelop a procedure for dealing with

dissatisfied customers.

Influencing Customer Expectations

• Sometimes we as service providers realise that what our customers want is • unrealistic, • not in their own interests, • Cannot be provided by our organization etc.

• In situations such as these, we need to influence their expectations so as not to lose potential customers or to be able to provide them with services that will inure to their benefit.


• How do you influence a customer’s expectations?

• Establish trust: People buy only from those whom they trust. And trust needs to be earned and sustained through constant follow-up and customer care.


• Explain why: Customers like to be given information and not told “this is how it is done”. Tell them why • the process is cumbersome• They need to provide various documentation prior to

receiving loans etc.

• Educate: The more your customers know, the better they understand the complexity of your work and the impact their expectations have. • The customer is not always right. He should be educated to

take the best decisions in the interest of both himself and you the service provider.


• Give more than you take: See if you can identify one or two of your customer’s expectations that you haven't acted on and which are relatively easy to satisfy. • Ensure they're satisfied. • Then bring up some expectation you would like to

change. When the customer perceives that you usually give more than what he demands, he will start having faith in your decisions.


• Under promise and Over-deliver

• Once the expectations are clearly spelt out, give your customer some extra services for free. Remember that what you give as extras is as important as the act of giving.

• To know what to give as extras, ask yourself: • What would you like to see in the product/service in case you were

buying it yourself. • Give the level of service and support that you expect from others to

your own clients.

SESSION FOUR HANDLING CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

Handling Customer Complaints

• When a customer complains, look at it as an opportunity to improve.

• Share some scenarios or experiences when a bad customer experience happened.

Customers may be difficult for several reasons:• upset because something was mishandled by the company• frustrated about a delay in handling a request• Impatient about a company’s response time• Just having a bad day

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5 Steps for Handling Customer Complaints

• Step 1 – What is going on?: Assure the customer you can help and then listen carefully. Determine the reason for the problem without assigning blame.

• Apologize• Restate the Customer’s opening statement• Listen Carefully• Write down key details• Display empathy• Remain Composed


• Step 2 – What caused the problem?: Identify the root cause.

• Investigate the situation.• Determine if the customer has a valid complaint.• Apologize again, if necessary.• Explain what happened: stick to the facts. Keep emotion

out of it.


• Step 3 – What can I do?: Thank the customer for the opportunity to fix things. Rectify the situation.

• Tell the customer what you are going to do to solve the problem.

• Focus on What You CAN do.• Offer the best solution you can.• Never Assign blame.• Show Compassion.• Offer an alternative solution.


• Step 4 – What can I say?: Restore the relationship. Follow up to make sure customer is now satisfied.

• Thank the customer for allowing you to make things right.• Tell what you will do to avoid future problems.• Offer some sort of compensation or restitution.• Make a follow-up call or visit.


• Step 5 – What needs to be done?: Fix any practices or procedures so the problem doesn’t occur again.

• Analyze what went wrong.• Review company’s policies & procedures• Change to make things better.

How can you measure customer service?

Surveys

Focus

Groups

Verbal

comments

Committees

Comment Boxes

Blogs / web

based

feedback

Mystery Shopping

Networking

Written responses

SESSION FIVESERVICE RECOVERY

Service Recovery?

• When customer expectations are not met or customers feel that the service they have received is below standard, it may affect their decision to further do business with the organization. • This calls for service recovery.

• Service recovery has been defined variously as :

“ the effort an organisation expends to win back customers goodwill once it has been lost due to service failure”

“actions taken by an organisation in response to some service failures”

“doing the service very right the second time”

Service Recovery Strategies

Fail-safe the

Service

Welcome and

Encourage Complaints

Act Quickly

TreatCustomers Fairly Learn form

Recovery Experience

s

Learn from Lost

Customers

Service Recovery

Service Recovery

• We do not have to wait for customer complaints to initiate the service recovery process• Customers usually do not have the propensity to complain

especially in Ghana.• They endure the poor service until they are fed up and move

to a competitor

• OR • Complaints often don’t identify the root of the problem• Complaints often don’t reach management.

• MEANWHILE

• Dissatisfied customers spread negative WOM.

Service Recovery

• We therefore need to be more proactive in ensuring service recovery. How?• Are you losing customers? Find out why• Constantly seek feedback from customers about your

organization• Find out about what the competition is doing which you

are not doing and see how to integrate it into your service

Other strategies???

Service Recovery

• It is important to note that dissatisfied customers have options… They either:• Do Nothing• Complain in some form to the Service Organization• Take Action Through a 3rd Party or• Switch to a Competitor & Spread Negative Word of

Mouth (WOM)

• This emphasizes the need for service recovery to ensure that dissatisfied customers are heard and their issues addressed.

Managing Customer Expectations

Education

Transcript of Managing Customer Expectations