Table of contents:-
- Meaning of Customer Expectations of Service
- What is Customer Expectations of Service?
- Customer Expectations of Service Level
- Zone of Tolerance of Customer Expectations of Service
Meaning of Customer Expectations of Service
Customers purchase goods and services to fulfil their specific needs. Needs are often intensely rooted in people’s unconscious minds and may concern long-term presence and identity issues. When individuals experience a sense of necessity, they are motivated to take action to fulfil it. Purchasing a good or service may be seen as offering the best solution to meet a specific requirement. Later, consumers may compare what they received to what they expected, particularly if it cost them time, money, or effort that could have been committed to obtaining an alternative solution.
Consumer or customer expectations of service are beliefs regarding the delivery of service that function as standards or reference points for evaluating performance. Thorough knowledge of customer expectations is important for service marketers. This knowledge enables them to effectively evaluate their perceptions of performance with these reference points when evaluating service quality. Understanding customer expectations is the most important step in delivering quality service. Incorrectly understanding what customers want can result in losing their business to a competitor who accurately meets their needs.
What is Customer Expectations of Service?
Customer expectations may be described as the desires or preferences of the consumer. These expectations play an important role in understanding what the customer expects from the organisation and its range of products and services. In other words, they reflect what customers believe the organization should provide them. These expectations are in most cases, unlike what the customer gets in a real-life situation from the organization. The key focus should be on the customer’s perceptions of performance, rather than on the reality of performance.
These expectations would become the foundation for developing a people-oriented system equipped to deliver quality.
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Failing to determine customer needs can fail in any effort to create positive disconfirmation by exceeding customer expectations. The knowledge of customer expectations from the firm at every encounter level is essential for providing direction to quality initiatives. The system attracts a customer with a promise of delivering exceptional services. When individuals within the organization are uncertain about the promises they should uphold, their efforts are unlikely to align in the right direction.
Quality suffers when a firm fails to keep its promises, does not provide complete service, provides delayed service, fails to provide services in their entirety, or supplies incomplete or inaccurate information. Moment of Truth provides brilliant opportunities to create quality perceptions by delivering services to customer expectations. Accordingly, customer expectations must be thoroughly understood as the first step in quality management efforts. It is very unlikely that all expectations are of equal importance to the customer. Expectations are likely to vary in terms of their importance and severity of effect when they are breached. Firms must strive to achieve fail-proof delivery on service components that high potential of bugging customers if they are breached. These must be isolated from the total pack of expectations and be re-grouped as core or critical.
Customer Expectations of Service Level
Two levels of customer service expectations can be seen in Figure. The types of customer service expectations are also known as two levels of customer service expectations.
Customers hold different types of expectations about service. Service expectations are broadly classified into two types as follows:
1) Desired Service Expectations
It means the level of service the customer hopes to receive. The desired service is a blend of what the customer perceives as achievable and necessary. Desired service expectations are further classified into two types which are as follows:
i) Ideal Expectations
This is the highest grade of customer service expectations. At this level, the customer does want to adjust a bit to his/her expectations. For example, everyone says this restaurant is as good as one in Delhi and a person wants to go somewhere very special for his/her anniversary.
ii) Normative Expectations
This is the second highest degree of expectations and at this level, customers have a pre-decided mindset that service “should be” beyond or at par concerning a particular expected level. For example, as expensive as this restaurant is, it ought to have excellent food and service
2) Adequate Service Expectations
Adequate service expectation is the service expectation which has the minimum threshold level, which is acceptable to the customer. According to these expectations, the services, at this point are acceptable to the customer but not so as desired by the customer. Adequate service expectations are further classified into three types which are as follows:
i) Experience-Based Expectations
The customer makes expectations about services according to past interactions or experiences with the services. For example, most times this restaurant is very good, but when it gets busy the service becomes low.
ii) Acceptable Expectations
Customers draw their inferences about services due to some specific reasons for acceptability. For example, one expects the restaurant to be very good, and to serve him/her adequately because of its charges.
iii) Minimum Tolerable Expectations
These are the boundary lines of the lowest level degree. Low beyond this level, customers will not accept service. For example, one expects terrible service from this restaurant but comes because the price is low.
Zone of Tolerance of Customer Expectations of Service
Understanding the difference between the upper and lower end of the range of possible customer expectations holds significant strategic importance when it comes to effectively managing customer satisfaction. Marketers often refer to the upper end of expectations as desired performance expectations (what customers want) and the lower end of the range as adequate performance expectations which reflect what customers are willing to accept. The zone of tolerance is the extent of the difference between desired and adequate performance as shown in the image.
The width of the zone of tolerance represents the degree to which customers recognise and are willing to accept variability in performance (i.e., quality, value, or some other measurable aspect of the marketing programme).
Performance Levels
Performance can be categorized into three levels: Above the zone of tolerance, within the zone of tolerance, or below it.
1) Customer Delight
It occurs when actual performance exceeds the desired performance expectation. This level of performance is occasional and completely surprising when it occurs. Therefore, customers find it to be excellent.
2) Customer Satisfaction
Achieving customer satisfaction occurs when the actual performance of a product or service falls within the acceptable range, known as the zone of tolerance. Satisfaction levels differ based on where performance falls within the zone (low or high).
3) Customer Dissatisfaction
It occurs when actual performance falls below the adequate performance expectation. Depending upon the severity of the performance level, customers may go beyond dissatisfaction to become frustrated or angry. This too can be very unique for customers.
If the zone is narrow, the difference between customer preferences and their level of acceptance is likewise narrow. This means that the marketer will have a relatively more difficult time matching performance to customer expectations. Hence, customer satisfaction becomes more challenging when the zone of tolerance is narrow.
Conversely, broadening the zone of tolerance makes achieving customer satisfaction comparatively easier. In these instances, the marketer’s hurdle is lower and find it easier to achieve their satisfaction targets. Delighting the customer by exceeding desired expectations is an exceptionally challenging endeavour for marketers. Consistently failing to meet even adequate expectations and causing customer dissatisfaction is a situation which must be avoided every time.
Issues from the marketer’s point of view
Customers will typically have varying levels of expectations and zones of tolerance for different performance factors. For example, In a restaurant, customers typically have a limited level of acceptance when it comes to food quality, an even narrower zone of tolerance for service quality, an average zone of tolerance for wait time, and a relatively broad area of tolerance for cleanliness.
From the marketer’s point of view, two crucial issues come into play:
1) The firm must clearly understand the relevant performance factors about which customers will hold performance expectations. Customers can have expectations for a wide range of aspects, although there are typically only a few factors that are critical for most customers. Many firms look first at factors dealing with product strategy; however, critical performance factors can cut across the entire marketing programme.
2) The firm must track expectations and performance over time. Tracking performance levels vis expectations and the zone of tolerance is a useful diagnostic tool for both strategic planning and the management of customer satisfaction. The approach is also helpful in tracking the effectiveness of performance improvements and assessing the performance of new goods or services. Ultimately, monitoring and evaluating both expectations and performance is an important way to ensure that customer satisfaction remains stable or improves over time. Declining customer satisfaction indicates an urgent requirement for prompt corrective measures.