FOCUS ON CUSTOMER

CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS OF SERVICE

Customer Expectations of Service

• Meaning and Types of Services Expectations

• Factors that Influence Customer Expectations of Service

• A Model of Customer Service Expectations

• Issues Involving Customer Service Expectations

Customer Expectations of Service

• Recognize that customers hold different types of expectations for service performance.

• Controllable and uncontrollable sources of customer expectations.

• Acknowledge that expectations are similar for many different types of customers.

• Delineate the most important current issues surrounding customer expectations.

Possible Levels of Customer Expectations

Diff. types of Expectations

• Predictive – how an orgn. will perform

• Normative – should happen in an orgn.

• Excellence –

• Adequate – expectations for min. level of perf.

Dual Customer Expectation Levels

Dual Customer Expectation Levels

• Desired service: The level of service the customer hopes to receive. This is the highest level of service expected.

• Adequate service: The level of service customers will accept - the threshold level of acceptable service.

The Zone of Tolerance

The Zone of Tolerance

• ZOT is the extent to which customers recognize - the variation in services across many providers, across employees of the same provider and within the same service employee – and are willing to accept the variation in service.

• ZOT is different for different customers and different for the same customer from time to time

Zones of Tolerance for Different Service Dimensions

Zones of Tolerance for First-Time and Recovery Service

Analyzing and Interpreting Marketing Research Findings

• Tracking of Performance

• Gap scores

• Competition

• Zone of Tolerance charts

• Importance/ Performance Matrices

Service Quality Perceptions Relative to Zones of Tolerance (by Dimensions)

Service Quality Perceptions Relative to Zones of Tolerance (by Dimensions)

Factors That Influence Desired Service

Factors That Influence Desired Service

• Personal needs : Physical or Psychological

• Enduring Service Intensifiers : Are individual, stable factors that lead the customer to a heightened sensitivity to service.

– Derived service expectations : customers expectations are driven by another person or another group of people.

• Personal service philosophy : the customer’s underlying generic attitude about the meaning of service and the proper conduct of service providers.

Factors That Influence Adequate Service

Factors That Influence Adequate Service

• Transitory Service Intensifiers : temporary, usually short-term, individual factors that make a customer more aware of the need for service.

• Perceived Service Alternatives : other providers from whom customers can obtain service.

• Self-Perceived Service Role : customer perceptions of the degree to which customers exert an influence on the level of service they receive.

• Situational Factors : beyond the control of the service provider.

• Predicted service : The Level of service customers believe they are likely to get.

Factors That Influence Desired and Predicted Service

Issues involving Customer Service Expectations

• What does a service marketer do if customer expectations are “unrealistic”?

• Should a company try to delight the customer?

• How does a company exceed customer service expectations?

• Do customer service expectations continually escalate?

• How does a service company stay ahead of competition in meeting customer expectations?