How to manage customer’s expectations

How to manage customer’s expectations

This article is about how to manage customer’s expectations in a service organization.

The focus of most customer relations management activities is of course the customer itself. The service organization gathers information about the customers and makes a predictive model of customer behavior and seeks to control customer interactions with the company.

Customers reasonably come to expect certain things and services – such as value for money, competitive prices, good quality products and a certain service level, from a business relationship.
The customer’s expectations are based largely on personal experience, commercials, as well as accounts of experience from relatives and friends.

So, although customer expectations are increasing, both in the business world and or the internet, it is a relative phenomenon, according to company, business model, employees, products and much more. It is a fact that customers who are being well served don’t make as much noise as customers who feel slighted.

In order to evaluate the potential value of using a CRM or CS system, to better satisfy the support needs of profitable customers, some of the key questions to ask could be;

1) What is the competition doing to customers expectations? Look at close competitors and long term customers as well as the industry as a whole. Spot the highway.

2) What metrics, other than profitability, differentiate very good, good, and bad customers? Is it the amount of customer support, they require, the number of incoming calls or anything else related to scratch your service organization?