Customer expectations are beliefs about a service that act as standards against which performance is judged. There are different types of expectations including ideal, normative, experience-based, and minimum tolerance levels. Marketers should be aware of factors that influence expectations like perceived alternatives, word-of-mouth, and past experiences. To manage expectations, companies should understand what customers will accept as adequate service and aim to meet or exceed expectations through consistent, high-quality performance.

1. By:
Saugata Palit

2. 1
• Meaning and Types of Expected
Service
2
• Factors That Influence Customer
Expectations of Service

3. Meaning and Types of
Expected Service

4. Customer Expectations of
Service
Customer Expectations
•Beliefs about service delivery
•Serve as standards or reference points against
which performance is judged.
•Customers compare their perceptions of
performance with these reference points when
evaluating service quality.
•Thorough knowledge about customer expectations
is critical to services marketers.

5. Expected Service: Levels of
Expectations
Possible Levels of Customer Expectation
Ideal Expectations or Desires
Normative “Should” Expectations
Experience Based Norms
Acceptable Expectations
Minimum Tolerance Expectations

6. Dual Customer Expectation Levels
Desired Service:
Level of service that
customer hopes to
receive
Adequate service:
Level of service the
customer will accept

7. The Zone of Tolerance
Range or window in which customers do not notice
service performance
When service falls outside this range(either very high or
very low), the service gets the customer’s attention in
either a positive or negative way

8. Zones of Tolerance for
Different Service Dimensions
Desired Service
Zone of
Tolerance
Adequate Service
Most Important Factors
Desired Service
Zone
of
Tolerance
Adequate Service
Least Important factors

9. Factors That Influence
Customer Expectations of
Service

10. Factors That Influence
Desired Service

11. Factors That Influence
Adequate Service

12. TABLE 4.1: (Continued) How Services Marketers Can
Influence Factors
Factor Possible Influence Strategies
Perceived service alternatives Be fully aware of competitive offerings, and where possible and
appropriate, match them.
Self-perceived service role Educate customers to understand their roles and perform them
better.
Word-of-mouth communications Simulate word of mouth in advertising by using testimonials and
opinion leaders.
Identify influencers and opinion leaders for the service and
concentrate marketing efforts on them.
Use incentives with existing customers to encourage them to say
positive things about the service.
Past experience Use marketing research to profile customers’ previous experience
with similar services.
Situational factors Use service guarantees to assure customers about service recovery
regardless of the situational factors that occur.
Predicted service Tell customers when service provision is higher than what can
normally be expected so that predictions of future service
encounters will not be inflated.

13. Frequently Asked Questions
About Customer Expectations
What does a service marketer do if customer
expectations are “unrealistic”?
How does a company exceed customer service
expectations?
Do customer service expectations continually
escalate?

14. What does a service marketer do if
customer expectations are “unrealistic”?
•Under promise
•Reality check after purchase

15. How does a company exceed customer service
expectations?
Honor promises don’t work on exceeding expectations

16. How does a service company stay ahead of
competition in meeting customer expectations?
• Meet customer’s expectations better than the
competition

17. Do customer service expectations continually
escalate?
Desired service expectations are relatively stable
Adequate service expectations rise as quickly as
service delivery or promise rise