This document provides an overview of managing customer expectations. It discusses: 1) Identifying customer expectations, which are their vision of future service and can change over time based on experiences. Customers generally expect competent, efficient service; anticipation of their needs; and explanations in terms they understand. 2) There are two key elements to meeting expectations - the technical element of the product/service working properly, and the human element of how customers feel they are treated during the process. 3) Managing expectations at different stages - learn expectations prior to purchase, communicate expectations during service, and follow-up after to ensure expectations were met. Influencing expectations involves establishing trust and communicating the benefits of realistic expectations.

1. MANAGING CUSTOMER
EXPECTATIONS

2. Objectives
• At the end of this training, you will be able to
• Identify the elements of a good customer service
encounter
• Note the two elements of service that must be
provided to meet every customer‟s basic
expectations
• Identify key expectations customers have of
service providers and how to influence these
expectations
• Determine how to handle customer complaints
and ensure service recovery

3. Content
• The Customer Service Encounter
• Customer Expectations… What are they?
• Managing and Influencing Customer Expectations
• Handling Customer Complaints
• Service Recovery

4. SESSION ONE
THE CUSTOMER SERVICE ENCOUNTER

5. Customer Service
• Customer service is an organization's ability to
identify and supply their customers' wants and
needs.
• The Institute of Customer Service (ICS) defines it as
“…The sum total of what an organization does to
1. meet customer expectations and
2. produce customer satisfaction. ..”

6. Customer Service
• You therefore, need to know what the customer‟s
expectations are to ensure
• Customer satisfaction
• That activities are occurring as expected
• That deliverables or output meet expectations
• That deliverables are received when expected
• That anticipated value is received

7. The Customer Service Encounter
• An interaction you have with your customers
• face to face / in person
• by e-mail
• over the telephone
• anything that involves an “exchange” of
• information, advice, ideas, physical resources, etc

8. The Customer Service Encounter
• During a service encounter the customer will form a
judgement on the service provided based on their
personal:
• expectations
• perceptions
• desires
• feelings
• needs
• wants
• values

9. The Customer Service Encounter
• Based on the quality of the service encounter a
customer will either be
• satisfied,
• dissatisfied or
• delighted.
• Knowing a customer‟s expectation is instrumental in
developing a strategy for meeting and exceeding
customer expectations.

10. The Customer Service Encounter
The three general levels of customer service:
• Poor: • failure to meet customers‟
expectations
• customers‟ expectations
• Acceptable: are met but not exceeded
• customers‟ expectations
• Excellent: are exceeded

11. The 10 Attributes of Good Customer Service
• The 4 „management‟ attributes
• Security:
• safety of the environment and the customers
• Tangibles:
• products, resources
• Access:
• ease of access to service, opening hours
• Reliability:
• does equipment work properly, robust
operational procedures

12. The 10 Attributes of Good Customer Service
• The 6 “soft” attributes
• Courtesy:
• politeness and respect for others
• Communication:
• staff have appropriate interpersonal skills
• Competence:
• staff have been trained to an appropriate level

13. The 10 Attributes of Good Customer Service
• Responsiveness:
• willingness to help, go the “extra mile”
• Credibility:
• customer-centric: customer first, will you keep
your promises?
• Understanding the customer:
• talk and listen to your customers, are you giving
them the service they require?

14. SESSION 2
CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS…WHAT ARE THEY?

15. Customer Expectations?
• Expectations…
• What are they?
• They are your customer‟s vision of a future state or
action, usually unstated but which is critical to your
success.
• Expectations are not constant, they constantly
change over time, usually becoming more
demanding and are influenced by their previous
experiences and their experiences of dealing with
other organisations, particularly your competitors.

16. Customer Expectations?
• Quality of a service is about customer expectation
and perception.
• Exactly the same product or service may be
perceived as being good or poor depending upon
the customer’s expectations.

17. Customer Expectations?
• So what do customers expect from
you the service provider?

18. Customer Expectations?
• When you're a customer, what matters to
you?
• What matters when you're
• At the hospital
• At the Trotro station?
• Buying food stuff from the market or buying from a shop?
• Going to pay your electricity or water bill?
• Buying waakye at the roadside?

19. Customer Expectations?
• A survey was carried out to sample customer
expectations and the responses obtained were very
similar, demonstrating that most of us want the
same things when we are customers

20. When I’m a customer, I want When I’m a customer, I want
To be taken seriously Knowledgeable help
Competent, efficient service Friendliness
Anticipation of my needs To be kept informed
Explanations in my
terms Follow-through
Basic courtesies Honesty
To be informed of the options Feedback
Not to be passed around Professional service
To be listened to (and
heard) Empathy
Dedicated attention Respect

21. Customer Expectations?
Customer expectations can also vary depending on
the situation customers find themselves.
Consider the following customer expectations:
Polite Charming Good-looking Alert
Patient Humorous Well-dressed Clean
Intelligent Accurate Informed
Confident Respectful Enthusiastic
Competent Honest Reliable

22. Customer Expectations?
• There are two elements to customer
service delivery
Technical
Element Human
Element

23. Customer Expectations?
• The technical element refers to the product
• The solution, loan, system, response, resolution, deliverable or
result or whatever you are providing your customers.
• Whatever form the product takes, customers want it to work
properly, to meet their needs,
• This is the technical element of service, and you will not have
happy customers without it.
• But excelling in the technical element alone may not keep
customers coming back unless you also excel in the process.

24. Customer Expectations?
• The human element refers to the process
• How customers feel they have been treated.
• Not how customers are treated! How they feel they have
been treated.
• This is the human element of service which is
exceedingly important in achieving a high level of
customer satisfaction.
• In fact, for many customers, the process is more
important than the product.

25. Customer Expectations?
• For example, a person visits a restaurant primarily for
the food it serves.
• That is the customer‟s need/technical element.
• However, the customer expects polite staff, attentive
yet non intrusive service and a pleasant ambience.
• The human element.
• If these expectations are not properly met the guest
would leave the restaurant dissatisfied even if the
technical aspect, which is eating a meal, has been
met.

26. Customer Expectations?
All customers are likely to have special needs, which organizations
must cater for. These needs may be related to:
circumstances – requiring a product or information before a certain
time or for a set purpose
personal requirements – needing a product or information customized or
adapted in a specific way
individual traits – requiring different products or information because of
beliefs, age, fashion preferences, etc.
disability – needing special help due to problems
with mobility or another impairment.

27. SESSION THREE
MANAGING AND INFLUENCING CUSTOMER
EXPECTATIONS

28. Managing Customer Expectations
• At every stage in the customer‟s relationship with your
organization or in the buying process, customers have a different
set of expectations.
• At the pre-purchase stage when customers are still in doubt on
whether to establish a relationship with your organization
What would their expectations be?
• During the customer service encounter, when they are in the
process of using your services
• What would their expectations be?
• After the service has been accessed,
• what would be their expectations of you ?

29. Managing Customer Expectations Prior to
Purchase
Learn what customers expect.
Ask employees and customers.
Tell customers what to expect.
Consistently provide the service customers
expect.
This concretizes their expectations

30. Managing Customer Expectations during
Service Encounter
Communicate with customers during
the service.
If possible,
modify the service to meet customer
expectations or
explain why service cannot be modified.

31. Managing Customer Expectations after
the Purchase
Communicate - were expectations met?
Follow up on customers to get their views
Develop a procedure for dealing with
dissatisfied customers.

32. Influencing Customer Expectations
• Sometimes we as service providers realise that
what our customers want is
• unrealistic,
• not in their own interests,
• Cannot be provided by our organization etc.
• In situations such as these, we need to influence
their expectations so as not to lose potential
customers or to be able to provide them with
services that will inure to their benefit.

33. Influencing Customer Expectations
• How do you influence a customer‟s expectations?
• Establish trust: People buy only from those whom
they trust. And trust needs to be earned and
sustained through constant follow-up and customer
care.

34. Influencing Customer Expectations
• Explain why: Customers like to be given information
and not told “this is how it is done”. Tell them why
• the process is cumbersome
• They need to provide various documentation prior to
receiving loans etc.
• Educate: The more your customers know, the
better they understand the complexity of your work
and the impact their expectations have.
• The customer is not always right. He should be educated to
take the best decisions in the interest of both himself and
you the service provider.

35. Influencing Customer Expectations
• Give more than you take: See if you can identify
one or two of your customer‟s expectations that
you haven't acted on and which are relatively easy
to satisfy.
• Ensure they're satisfied.
• Then bring up some expectation you would like to change.
When the customer perceives that you usually give more
than what he demands, he will start having faith in your
decisions.

36. Influencing Customer Expectations
• Under promise and Over-deliver
• Once the expectations are clearly spelt out, give your
customer some extra services for free. Remember that
what you give as extras is as important as the act of
giving.
• To know what to give as extras, ask yourself:
• What would you like to see in the product/service in case you were
buying it yourself.
• Give the level of service and support that you expect from others to
your own clients.

37. SESSION FOUR
HANDLING CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

38. Handling Customer Complaints
• When a customer complains, look at it as an
opportunity to improve.
• Share some scenarios or experiences when a bad customer
experience happened.
Customers may be difficult for several reasons:
• upset because something was mishandled by the company
• frustrated about a delay in handling a request
• Impatient about a company‟s response time
• Just having a bad day

39. 5 Steps for Handling Customer Complaints
• Step 1 – What is going on?: Assure the customer you
can help and then listen carefully. Determine the
reason for the problem without assigning blame.
• Apologize
• Restate the Customer‟s opening statement
• Listen Carefully
• Write down key details
• Display empathy
• Remain Composed

40. 5 Steps for Handling Customer Complaints
• Step 2 – What caused the problem?: Identify the
root cause.
• Investigate the situation.
• Determine if the customer has a valid complaint.
• Apologize again, if necessary.
• Explain what happened: stick to the facts. Keep emotion
out of it.

41. 5 Steps for Handling Customer Complaints
• Step 3 – What can I do?: Thank the customer for the
opportunity to fix things. Rectify the situation.
• Tell the customer what you are going to do to solve the
problem.
• Focus on What You CAN do.
• Offer the best solution you can.
• Never Assign blame.
• Show Compassion.
• Offer an alternative solution.

42. 5 Steps for Handling Customer Complaints
• Step 4 – What can I say?: Restore the
relationship. Follow up to make sure customer is
now satisfied.
• Thank the customer for allowing you to
make things right.
• Tell what you will do to avoid future problems.
• Offer some sort of compensation or restitution.
• Make a follow-up call or visit.

43. 5 Steps for Handling Customer Complaints
• Step 5 – What needs to be done?: Fix any practices
or procedures so the problem doesn‟t occur again.
• Analyze what went wrong.
• Review company‟s policies & procedures
• Change to make things better.

44. How can you measure customer service?

45. SESSION FIVE
SERVICE RECOVERY

46. Service Recovery?
• When customer expectations are not met or customers feel
that the service they have received is below standard, it may
affect their decision to further do business with the
organization.
• This calls for service recovery.
• Service recovery has been defined variously as :
“ the effort an organisation expends to win back customers
goodwill once it has been lost due to service failure”
“actions taken by an organisation in response to some service
failures”
“doing the service very right the second time”

47. Service Recovery Strategies
Welcome
and
Encourage
Complaints
Act
Fail-safe
Quickly
the
Service
Service
Recovery
Learn from
Treat Lost
Custome Customers
rs Fairly Learn form
Recovery
Experiences

48. Service Recovery
• We do not have to wait for customer complaints to
initiate the service recovery process
• Customers usually do not have the propensity to complain
especially in Ghana.
• They endure the poor service until they are fed up and move to
a competitor
• OR
• Complaints often don‟t identify the root of the problem
• Complaints often don‟t reach management.
• MEANWHILE
• Dissatisfied customers spread negative WOM.

49. Service Recovery
• We therefore need to be more proactive in
ensuring service recovery. How?
• Are you losing customers? Find out why
• Constantly seek feedback from customers about your
organization
• Find out about what the competition is doing which you are
not doing and see how to integrate it into your service
Other
strategies???

50. Service Recovery
• It is important to note that dissatisfied
customers have options… They either:
• Do Nothing
• Complain in some form to the Service Organization
• Take Action Through a 3rd Party or
• Switch to a Competitor & Spread Negative Word
of Mouth (WOM)
• This emphasizes the need for service
recovery to ensure that dissatisfied customers
are heard and their issues addressed.