Phillip Fernandez

Human Strategy Specialist and Business Coach
Wizard Business Consulting

Most businesses would like to think that they deliver good service and so would automatically assume that their customers or clients are happy. Technically this is correct, but in reality this assumption is fraught with loopholes.

Yes if we are in the service business where we are providing a service and or product, we must ensure that we have the appropriate business/people systems in place to promote best practice.
This covers a myriad of areas in business that I am not going to go into in this article as I am assuming for the sake of the exercise that you have these in place.

The question is “Are we meeting the expectations of our customer/client.“

Adequate expectations

The lowest level of service that a customer should tolerate. This form of service should not even exist
as customers will only tolerate this level of service for a short period and one day will just not return
The customers’ expectations are met at a level that any competitor can provide a better service and so
these businesses will probably not last too long in today`s competitive world.

Predictive expectation

What the customer thinks should happen. Customers these days experience different levels of service in a variety of different industries or businesses that they visit from time to time and so develop a
benchmark related to that particular industry based on past experiences. So what is happening here is that the customer without your knowledge is comparing your service level to one they have experienced in a similar industry whenever they visit your business. The question is “Do you pass?“

Equitable or deserved expectations

What the customer believe they should receive. Customers these days are savvy and so expect a
certain level of service that is fair and justifies the price for the service or product bought. They want
to be pampered and made feel special, whatever the industry. The question is “Does your service
level and or product justify the price that you are charging?“

Desired/ideal expectations

The optimal level of performance. This level of service is provided by your top echelon businesses. The ones that truly care and does understand that good service is not enough anymore but excellent service that actually not only meets the customer`s expectations but in a lot of cases over exceeds the expectations of the customer.

The question is“How do we over exceed their expectations and how do we know when we do it.?
How do we create that WOW! factor?

Here are a few simple strategies:

1. We need to do the little things well that ultimately make a big difference.
2. Be precise with your service levels and always have a backup plan.
3. Ensure that your business/people systems are customer friendly.
4. The biggest one of all is to get staff buy-in with pride that exudes professionalism and empathy.

For any further information you can contact the writer on:

Wizard Business Consulting

Mobile: 0402 213 813
Email: phillip@businesswizards.com.au
Website: www.businesswizards.com.au