MANAGE EXPECTATIONS AS SOON AS THAT CUSTOMER WALKS THROUGH THE DOOR
Understanding customers’ expectations is a prerequisite for delivering superior service.
But the nature of customer service expectations and how they are formed has remained ambiguous.
Researchers have defined customer service expectations in a variety of ways but there isn’t a conceptual framework to link the different types of expectations or indicate their interactions in influencing perceptions of service performance.
Every customer walks into a known or an unknown situation with a set of expectations. Expectations are our personal vision of the results that will come from our experience, and can be positive or negative.
If a customer’s last experience with the dealership was negative, that customer might expect to be dissatisfied the next time. That customer might appear “armed and ready” for battle.
THE RIGHT EXPECTATIONS
Customer service providers must recognize that customers have different levels of expectations. Expectations can be divided into two distinct categories: primary and secondary expectations.
Primary expectations are the customer’s most basic requirements of an interaction.
When dining at a restaurant, our primary expectations are to satisfy our hunger, to let someone else do the cooking, and to pay a reasonable price.
Secondary expectations are expectations based on our previous experiences. So if we follow the restaurant dining example, our secondary expectations are to have good service, to be treated with courtesy, and to receive tasty food.
A customer’s expectations change constantly, and each customer will have his or her own set of expectations. While this can be challenging, it provides a unique opportunity for us to strive to meet and exceed customer expectations,
By understanding customer expectations and knowing how to set, meet and even exceed them, you can go a long way to achieving high customer satisfaction.
Customers can differentiate between good and poor service. Make sure you set expectations right from the get go. Then be sure to continue to meet expectations and keep customers happy.
While dealerships should strive to improve the service as best as possible, the customer does not always understand the situation perfectly. So that actually means the customer is not always right. Having a dialogue with your customers to understand their needs or desires allows you to manage expectations.
Understanding customer expectations and knowing how to set, meet and even exceed them, can go a long way to achieving high customer satisfaction.
When customers have high expectations and the reality falls short, they will be disappointed and will likely rate their experience as less than satisfying.
For example a dealership might receive a lower satisfaction rating compared with the aftermarket outlets based on survey reports, even though dealership facilities and service would be deemed superior in absolute terms.
The service process is key to exceeding expectations. Dealerships are supposed to be accurate and dependable and provide the service they promised. It’s unlikely for a dealership to exceed customer expectations if they only just have the customer’s vehicle ready.
The opportunity lies in the ability to surprise the customer.
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
Meeting customer expectations is the most valuable part of customer satisfaction.
To do this, you must make sure you deliver a consistent level of service that is based on the key areas and KPIs you have set for each customer.
A while back, a customer bought a new Toyota Highlander from us and later came back for the first service. When I greeted her, I noticed she was distressed due to a fresh scratch on her front bumper while backing up from her garage.
She wasn’t expecting Brimell Toyota to take care of the scratch during her first oil change. But we ended up polishing the bumper as a gesture of goodwill. She was astonished to find out the scratch had disappeared at the service delivery time and later sent us satisfaction feedback/reviews as:
“Expect the exceptional!! Going above and beyond the unspoken needs of a customer have been effectively practiced. I must compliment the excellent customer service I received at Brimell Toyota that was over my expectations.”
MANAGE PROMISES
I came across a study that found some observers recommend deliberately under-promising a service to increase the likelihood of exceeding customer expectations.
But you never want to over-promise something to a customer and then under-deliver. Dealerships influence customer expectation levels by the explicit and implicit service promises they make, so a key approach to managing expectations is to manage the promises.
Dealerships will have a better chance of meeting customer expectations when their promises reflect the service actually delivered rather than an idealized version of the service.
Dealerships that seek to exceed customer expectations in order to enhance their quality image should capitalize on the best opportunity for doing so.
SETTING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS
Too many times I have talked to customers where they’ve had sales and service advisers over-promise and set expectations so high that their managers had no chance of meeting them.
Once you know what your customer’s needs are, you can begin setting expectations. You can tell customers what service levels they can expect to receive, what support is available to them, and what results they should be getting.
Dealerships will have a better chance of meeting customer expectations when their promises reflect the service actually delivered rather than an idealized version of the service.
Customer service expectations can generally be categorized into five overall dimensions: reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. These dimensions capture all of the comments.
While reliability is largely concerned with the service outcome, tangibles, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy are more concerned with the service process. Whereas customers judge the accuracy and dependability (i.e., reliability) of the delivered service, they judge the other dimensions as the service is being delivered.
Customer expectations are beliefs about the service delivery that serve as standards or reference points against which performance is judged. Because customers compare their perceptions of performance with these reference points when evaluating service quality, thorough knowledge about customer expectations is critical to service marketers.
Knowing what the customer expects is the first and possibly most critical step to delivering good quality service.
Customer expectations set the bar for customer satisfaction which also affects repurchase decisions and customer loyalty. If a customer feels like you did not deliver a service that was expected, they won’t come back and buy your product or service from you again.
But if you deliver a product or service that exceeds customer expectations, you can bet they will come back to buy again — and tell all their friends about the experience.
