We’d love to be able to say none of us have had one of those experiences where service just fell way short of what we expected, but the truth is it happens far more than it should.
If a customer expects one thing and gets something different there are a whole lot of factors that can be at play here. Whilst there are the exceptions, most of the time, we as business owners need to own this as a mistake.
Ask yourself:
How do we know what the customer expectations are?
What is the ideal customer experience?
How do we know that is the case?
Whilst experience and learned behaviour about what to expect in a business, whatever category it is in, plays a part, the majority of these questions can be answered by asking your customers. There are a lot of ways you can do this, such as feedback forms, focus groups, simply asking at the time of sale, asking for referrals, watching the reactions. But the most reliable feedback comes when the person doesn’t feel confronted to give a safe answer. Let’s face it a safe answer is not helping anyone. Waiter: “How’s the food?” Reply: “Good”. Umm, that’s not really very helpful. Be authentic with your question and show you care. Better still have someone who didn’t perform the service ask the same question. That’s less confrontational. Whatever you do though, if you ask for feedback make sure you are seen to act on it. Don’t be afraid of bad feedback. Use this as an opportunity. And the biggest opportunity is how you deal with a complaint. Research says that a prompt and fair response to a complaint will build loyalty. When you are responding, think you are responding to every other customer you want to have. Because if you deal with a complaint well, they’ll tell people. Equally they’ll tell more people if you don’t deal with it well, particularly in this world where social media is so accessible.
How do we influence a customer’s expectations?
The way you present your business plays a big part in what a customer will expect. This is also called your brand promise. First impressions count. If you say you do something in a particular way, do it that way! Then consider the value of under promising so you can over deliver. Communicate clearly with your customer at all times, especially if events are not going to plan – don’t leave them wondering what’s happening.
Why do we do, what we do, in that way?
Is this helping our business?
Hopefully by now you have heard the term being customer centric. To recap, being customer centric means put yourself in your customer’s shoes as a buyer. Don’t operate with the mindset of telling customers what YOU want them to know, instead, think, what do THEY want to know, or want from the business? Then engineer your whole operation to deliver this.
If we think about it, the very best customer experiences have been when the buying process has been really easy, and also when we have had a pleasant surprise. Remove every barrier to making the process easy, make it seamless, and over deliver at least a little bit – you will build a loyal customer. If the customer expects something from the business in a certain way, the business needs to own the cause of this, so in this line of thinking the customer is always, right. Be the customer, take a customer journey through your business and see where you can make life easier for them – not you!
Building emotional connections with your customers is another great way of influencing a customer’s expectations, but that’s a far bigger subject for another day.
Once you have built the ideal customer experience make sure you communicate your expectations to your staff. And set up ways to measure how this is going as you can’t expect to improve what you can’t measure.