Wednesday, February 08, 2006
Customer Expectations
Creating exceptional customer service starts with you. Providing service to customers and prospective customers starts with you wanting to meet or exceed the expectations presented to you by the customer or circumstance. You will need to keep in mind that exceptional customer service is not what you believe it to be, but, it's what your customer perceives it to be.
In every interaction you have with a customer, there will always be expectations that are set and need to be achieved. From the smallest of details like returning a phone call or an email to introducing a new product or troubleshooting an issue, there comes a certain amount of an expectation.
Your customer places their order with you on their regular day, at the regular time and for the regular scheduled delivery day. Seems like a pretty normal sequence of events for you and the customer, right. Now, let's take a look at the expectations this scenario might create. The customer now expects the order to come on the correct day, at the normal delivery time, delivered by a pleasant and efficient driver, all the items ordered on the truck and at the correct and agreed upon pricing. If all of this occurs then the expectations are met and you have a satisfied customer in this interaction. Now I have taken for granted that this customer has those expectations I have stated.
Now comes the time when you can turn it up a notch and create that exceptional and memorable customer service by exceeding expectations and thereby creating more than customer satisfaction, you can start creating customer loyalty.
Take the same customer ordering scenario above and meeting those expectations. How would you start to exceed those expectations? You could always ask the customer exactly what they do expect out of this event, so, you could meet those and start to plan on exceeding them. Could you call to let the customer know what the truck's arrival time is? Could you call to let them know of any delays in that arrival time? Could you call after the delivery to follow up on the driver, all items delivered correctly and complete or any issues to resolve from this delivery? After these calls are completed and handled accordingly with the customer, you may want to ask if there is anything that needs to be worked on so you can plan for your next scheduled call. Better yet, make an appointment outside of the scheduled ordering day so both parties can focus on the new project at hand.
Think about meeting expectations and gaining customer satisfaction or focus on exceeding your customers expectations and creating customer loyalty.
In every interaction you have with a customer, there will always be expectations that are set and need to be achieved. From the smallest of details like returning a phone call or an email to introducing a new product or troubleshooting an issue, there comes a certain amount of an expectation.
Your customer places their order with you on their regular day, at the regular time and for the regular scheduled delivery day. Seems like a pretty normal sequence of events for you and the customer, right. Now, let's take a look at the expectations this scenario might create. The customer now expects the order to come on the correct day, at the normal delivery time, delivered by a pleasant and efficient driver, all the items ordered on the truck and at the correct and agreed upon pricing. If all of this occurs then the expectations are met and you have a satisfied customer in this interaction. Now I have taken for granted that this customer has those expectations I have stated.
Now comes the time when you can turn it up a notch and create that exceptional and memorable customer service by exceeding expectations and thereby creating more than customer satisfaction, you can start creating customer loyalty.
Take the same customer ordering scenario above and meeting those expectations. How would you start to exceed those expectations? You could always ask the customer exactly what they do expect out of this event, so, you could meet those and start to plan on exceeding them. Could you call to let the customer know what the truck's arrival time is? Could you call to let them know of any delays in that arrival time? Could you call after the delivery to follow up on the driver, all items delivered correctly and complete or any issues to resolve from this delivery? After these calls are completed and handled accordingly with the customer, you may want to ask if there is anything that needs to be worked on so you can plan for your next scheduled call. Better yet, make an appointment outside of the scheduled ordering day so both parties can focus on the new project at hand.
Think about meeting expectations and gaining customer satisfaction or focus on exceeding your customers expectations and creating customer loyalty.
