Customer expectations are beliefs about the level of service that will be provided. There are two types of expectations: desired service, which is the optimal level hoped for, and adequate service, which is the minimum tolerable level. Factors like personal needs, past experiences, available alternatives, and situational factors influence expectations. Gaps can occur when customer expectations do not align with a provider's understanding of them, service design, delivery of service, or communications about the service. Measuring perceptions against expectations on reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles can identify service quality issues using the SERVQUAL model. Addressing gaps within the organization is important to improve customer satisfaction.

1. Customer Expectations: are believes about service delivery
that serve as a standard or reference point against which
performance is judged.
Why:- Because customers compare their perceptions of
performance with these reference points when evaluating
service quality. Therefore, knowledge about customer
expectation is critical to service marketers.

2.  Knowing what customer expects is the first and
possibly most critical step in delivering quality service.
- Being wrong about what customer want can mean:
 Losing a customers business when
another company lifts the target
exactly
 Also mean expending money, time
and other resource on things that do
not count to the customer

3.  For the purpose of our discussion, we focus on two
type of services:
1. Desired service
2. Adequate service
Desired service (Ideal service level)
 It is the highest level
 It is level of services the customer hops to receive the
“wished for” level of performance

4. Eg:- You will engage the service of your college’s
placement office when you are ready to graduate.
 What are your expectation of the service?
 In all likely hood you want the office to find you job
the right job in the right place for the right salary
because that is what you hope and wish for
Adequate Service
 It is the minimum level of service the consumer will
tolerate and accept with out being dissatisfied .

5.  Eg. However, you probably see that the economy may
constraint the availability of ideal job opening in
companies.
 And not all companies you may be interested in having
a relationship with your placement office.
 In this situation and in general, customers hope to
achieve their service desires but recognize that this is
not possible.
 We call the threshold level of acceptable service
adequate service the level of service the customer will
accept
 Some graduates accepted any job for which

6.  They earn a salary
 Other agree to non- paying short term position as interns to
gain experience.
 It represents the “minimum tolerable expectant” the
bottom level of performance acceptable to the
customer.
 The Zone of Tolerance
 Services are heterogeneous in that performance may
vary across providers, across employees from the some
provider and even with the same service employee.

7.  The extent to which customers recognize and
are willing to accept this variation is called the
zone of tolerance.
 If Service drop below adequate service-
customers will be frustrated and their
satisfaction with the company will be
undermined.
 If service performance is higher than zone of
tolerance at the top end where performance
exceeds the desired service – consumes will be
very pleased and probably quite surprised as
well.
 You might consider the ZOT as the range or
window in which customers do not particularly
notice service performance.

8.  When it falls outside the range (either very low or very
high) the service get the customers attention in either
a positive or negative way.
 E.g. Consider the service at a check out line in a
grocery store.
 Customer consider an acceptable time for this service
encounter 5 to 10 minutes
 If 2 or 3 minute- they may notice the service is excellent
 If it is 15 minute- they may grumble and look at their watch.

9.  3.1.2 Factors that influence customer expectation of
service
 Because expectation ply such a critical role in customer
evaluation of service, marketers need and want to
understand the factors that shape them.
Source of desired service expectation
 Personal needs: those states or conditions essential to the
physical or psychological wel- being of the customer, are
pivotal factors that shape what customers desire in the
service.
 E.g A fan who regularly goes to baseball games right from
work, and is therefore thirsty food and drink vendors will
pass by his section frequently, where as a fan who regularly
has dinner else where has a low or zero level of desired
service from the vendor.
 Lasting service intensifiers: are individual stable factors
that lead the customer to a high toned sensitivity to
service.

10.  E.g you might for example believe that waiters should
not keep customers waiting longer than 15 minutes to
take their orders.
 In general customers who are themselves in service
business or have worked for them in the post seem to
have especially strong service philosophy.
Source of adequate service expectation (Levels)
A different set of determinants affect adequate service,
the level of service the customers find acceptable.
The following are the factors that influence adequate
service (Factors affecting the level of adequate service):

11. Temporary service intensities
 Consists of short term, individual factors that make a
customer aware of the need for service.
 E.g personal emergency situation in which service is
urgently needed (such as:
 - an accident and the need for automobile insurance or
a breakdown in office equipment during a busy
period) raise the level of adequate service expectation,
particularly the level of responsiveness required and
considered acceptable.
Perceived Service alternatives: are other providers
from whom the customer can obtain service. From
whom the customer can obtain service.

12.  If customers have multiple service providers to choose
from, or if they provide the service for themselves
(such as lawn care), their level of adequate service are
higher than those of customers who believe it is not
possible to get better service else where.
 Eg: Small town:- Tiny Airpoprt, has reduced set of
options in airline travel. This customers will be more
tolerant of the service performance of the service
carriers in the town because few alternative exists.
 Their level of adequate service are low than other
(vehicles) – more tolerant
 We define this as customers perception of the degree
to which customers exert an influence on the level of
service receive.

13. Customer’s self- perceived service role.
 Customers’ expectations are partly shaped by how well they
believe they are performing their own roles in service
delivery.
 Their role may be here to specify the level of service
expected
 Eg:- A customer who is very explicit with a waiter about
how rare he wants his steak cooked in a restaurant will
probably be more dissatisfied if the meat comes to the
table overcooked than a customer who does not articulate
the degree of cookdneness expected.
 Level of adequate service also influenced by situational
factors, defined as service performance conditions that
customers view as beyond the control of the service
provider.
 Eg: During the days following world trade center disaster, telephone
and internet service was poor because so many, people were trying to
get in touch with friends and relatives.
 However, customers are forgiving because they understood the source
of the problem.

14. The final factor that influence adequate service is
predicted service, the level of service that customer
believe they are likely to get.
 If customers predict good service, their level of
adequate service are likely to be higher than if they
predict poor service.
 Eg: Full- time residents in a college town usually
predict faster restaurant service during summer
months when students are not on campus
 This prediction will probably lead them to have higher
standards for adequate service in restaurants during
the summer than during school month.

15. 3.2 Customer perception of service
 Your perception of something is the way you think
about it or the impetration you have of it.
 In describing customer perception of service, we can
raise two critical concepts:
- Customer satisfaction
- Service quality
 Practitioners and writers in poplar press tend to use
the terms satisfaction and quality interchangeably, but
researchers have attempted to be more precise about
the meaning and measurement, of the two concepts,
resulting, in considerable debates.
 The two concepts are fundamentally different in terms
of their underlying causes and outcomes

16.  Although they have certain things in common,
satisfaction is generally viewed as a broader concept,
where as service quality focuses specifically on
dimensions of service
customer satisfaction is influenced by:
A. Specific product features
Eg:- For a service such as a resort hotel important
features might include:
 The pool area
 Access to golf facilities
 Restaurant
 Room comfort and privacy etc.

17. B. Perception of service quality
 Perception of service quality are based on five
dimensions such as:
 Reliability- ability to perform the promised
service dependably and accurately.
 Responsiveness: - willingness to help
customers and provide prompt service.
 Assurance:- employees’ knowledge and their
ability to inspire trust and confidence.
 Empathy:- caring, individualized attention
given to customers.
 Tangibles: appearance of physical facility
equipment, personal and written materials

18. C. Price
D. Personal factors such as
 Customers wood or emotion at state
Eg: - When you are in a happy mood- you feel good services
and the reverse it true
E. Situational factors such as
 Family member opinions will also influence satisfaction
3.3 Gaps model of service quality
1. The customer gap
 Is the difference between customer expectations and
perceptions
 Customer expectations are standards or reference points
that customers bring into service experience whereas
customer perceptions are subjective assessment of actual
service experiences.

19.  The reason for the gap is the providers gap
 In order to bridge the gap between customer
perception and expectations, the providers gaps 1 to 4
are required to be filled.
2. The providers gap
 To close the all important customer gab, the gap model
suggests that four other gaps- the providers gaps- need
to be closed.
 These gaps occur within the organization providing
the service (hence the term providers gap) and
include.
Provider Gap 1: Not knowing what customer expect
 It is the difference between Customer expectation of
the service and company understanding of those
expectations

20. Causes of Gap
 Lack of market research orientation
 Inadequate upward communication
 Too many levels of management
Strategies to reduce the gab
 Communication with customers
 Conduct marketing research
 Encourage upward communication
Provider Gap 2: Not Selecting the right service
design and standards
 A company might correctly perceive the customers
needs but may not set a specified performance
standards.

21. Causes of Gap
 Inadequate management commitment to service quality
 Absence of goal setting
 Absence of customer driven standards
 Resource constraints
Strategies to reduce gap
 Top management commitment
 Develop service quality
 Standardization of task
Provider Gap 3: Not delivering the service standards
 This the gap is the difference between service quality
specification and actual service delivery.

22. Causes of Gap
 Deficiencies in human resource policies
 Failure to match supply and demand
 Customers not fulfilling their roles
Strategies to reduce gap
 Team work, empowerment, role clarity, training
 Synchronize demand and capacity
 Communicating with customers
Provider Gap 4: Not matching performance to
promises
This essentially a gap between
 What you deliver and
 Your external communication

23. Causes of Gap
 Over promising
 Ineffective management of customer
expectations
 Inadequate horizontal communication
Strategies to reduce gap
 Avoid propensity to over promise
 Increase horizontal communication
 Managing customer expectations

24. Measuring service quality
 The most widely used measure for service quality has
been the SERVQUAL measure of parasurman,
Zalthmal and Brry, according to which customer
assessment of service quality results from a
comparison of service expectations and actual
performance.
 It measures the service quality on five service quality
dimensions
 SERVQUAL scores are expressed as the difference
between expectation and perception.
 When perceived performance rating are lower than
expectations this a sight of poor quality, the reverse
indicator good quality.