The Impact of Customer Expectations on Customer Service

The Impact of Customer Expectations

on Customer Service

Customers come to you and your organization expecting that certain things will occur in regard to the products and services they desire. If you and other customer service representatives or employees fail to deliver them, your customers can easily desert to a brick and mortar or online competitor.

If you pay attention to your customers and strive for excellent customer service, you increase the chance that customer and brand loyalty will more likely result.

Typical customer expectations include one or more of the following things when they patronize an organization:

Expectations Related to People

Friendly, knowledgeable service providers.
Respect (to be treated like they are intelligent).
Empathy (to have feelings and emotions be recognized).
Courtesy (to be recognized as “the customer” and as someone who is important to you and your organization).
Equity (not to feel that one individual or group gets preferential benefits or treatment over another).

Expectations Related to Products and Services

Ease of accessibility.
Availability of products and services (no lengthy delays).
Reasonable and competitive pricing.
Products and services that adequately address needs.
Quality (appropriate value for money and time invested).
Ease of use.
Safety (warranty available and product free of defects that might cause physical injury)
State-of-the-art products and service delivery.
Easy-to-understand instructions (and follow-up assistance availability).
Ease of return or exchange (flexible policies that provide alternatives depending on the situation).
Appropriate and expedient problem resolution.
Restitution for the inconvenience, damage or loss.

For proven strategies for meeting customer needs, wants and expectations and for creating a customer-centric organization, get copies of Customer Service Skills for Success, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures and How to Be a Great Call Center Representative.

About Robert C. Lucas

Bob Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills.

Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Bob Lucas B.S., M.A., M.A, CPLP is the principal in Robert W. Lucas Enterprises, Inc and an internationally-known author; learning and performance professionals. He has written and contributed to numerous books on the subject of customer service skill training.

He regularly conducts workshops on creative training, train-the-trainer, customer service, interpersonal communication, and management,
and supervisory skills.

Learn more about Bob and his organization at www.robertwlucas.com and follow his blogs at www.robertwlucas.com/wordpress,
www.customerserviceskillsbook.com, and www.thecreativetrainer.com. Like Bob at www.facebook.com/robertwlucasenterprises

CorvisaCloud Survey Finds That Most Customers Dread Having to Contact Customer Service

by Robert W. Lucas

CorvisaCloud Survey Finds That Most Customers Dread Having to Contact Customer Service

How bad is customer service these days? According to a study by CorvisaCloud, 15% of customers dread waiting on hold to talk to a customer service agent more than sitting in a dentist’s chair. As this study indicates, there is limited satisfaction for a lot of customers.

Many things contribute to the perception that organizations are not doing enough to engage customers in a variety of ways or to identify and satisfy their needs, wants and expectations. These potential challenges to positive service might range from the service environment or practices to the organization’s deliverables.

A deliverable may be a tangible item manufactured or distributed by the company, such as a piece of furniture or service available to the customer, such as pest extermination. In either case, there are two potential areas of customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction – quality and quantity. If your customers receive what they perceive as a quality product or service to the level that they expected, and in the time frame promised or viewed as acceptable, they will likely be happy. On the other hand, if customers believe that they were sold an inferior product or given an inferior service or one that does not match their expectations, they will likely be dissatisfied and could take their business elsewhere. They may also provide negative word-of-mouth advertising for the organization.

The way to help ensure that you are not taking actions or failing to act in a manner that might potentially create dissatisfaction, spend some time examining your own service practices. Also, evaluate the policies and procedures used by others in the organization. If you find potential problem areas, make recommended changes to your supervisor so that in the future all employees can offer the best customer service possible.

For ideas and strategies on effectively providing service to your customers, get a copy of How to Be a Great Call Center Representative, Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures, and Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

The key to successfully making money as an author and/or self-publisher is to brand yourself and your company and to make yourself and your book(s) a household name. Part of this is face-to-face interaction with people at trade shows, library events, book readings, book store signings, blogging or guest blogging on a topic related to their book(s). Another strategy involves writing articles and other materials that show up online and are found when people search for a given topic related to a topic about which the author has written.

If you need help building an author platform, branding yourself and your book(s) or generating recognition for what you do, Make Money Writing Books will help. Bob’s popular book addresses a multitude of ideas and strategies that you can use to help sell more books and create residual and passive income streams. The tips outlined in the book are focused to help authors but apply to virtually any professional trying to increase personal and product recognition and visibility.

The Customer Service Representative’s Role in Organizational Culture

by Robert W. Lucas

The Customer Service Representative’s Role in Organizational Culture

Put simply, organizational culture is what your customer experiences. This culture is made up of a collection of subcomponents, each of which contributes to the overall service environment.

Organizational cultures are developed to some degree by everyone within the organization and are driven from the top down in most organizations. Without the mechanisms and atmosphere to support frontline service, the other components of the business environment cannot succeed. When leaders fail to recognize this point and do not lead by example from a service perspective, the organization is doomed to experience poor quality of service and lose customers.

Typically, culture portrays the dynamic nature of the organization and encompasses the values and beliefs that are important to the organization and its employees and managers. The experiences, attitudes, and norms cherished and upheld by employees and teams within the organization set the tone for the manner in which service is delivered and how service providers interact with both internal and external customers.

The type and quality of products and services also contribute to your organizational culture. If customers perceive that you offer reputable products and services in a professional manner and at a competitive price, your organization will likely reap the rewards of customer loyalty and positive “press.” On the other hand, if products and services do not live up to expectations or promises, or if your ability to correct problems in products and services is deficient, you and the organization could suffer adversely.

As a service provider, you play a crucial role in making sure that your culture is positive and projected to each person with whom you have contact. Customers do not care about your policy, your physical or mental condition, whether you are having issues with co-workers or managers, or any other element that might potentially inhibit your delivering quality customer service. What they do care about is receiving quality, timely and professional services and products. Anything else will likely have them headed for the door or to the next Internet site to have their needs, wants and expectations met.

Make it your goal that each day you come to work, that you will strive to make it the best possible day for you and for your customers. For more information about customer service and organizational cultures get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

About Robert C. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Customer Service Quote – Henry Ford

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Quote – Henry Ford

The phrase quality customer service is often bantered around in organizations. While some employees strive to deliver the best customer service possible, others simply show up for work and go through the motions. Likewise, some supervisors and managers are satisfied with just meeting minimal standards and do not continually look for ways to improve the system and enhance the customer experience.

It is a shame that in an economy where good jobs are hard to find, many employees are just “waiting to get another job” instead of dedicating themselves to give the best customer service possible each day. What these people fail to realize is that when they slight their internal and external customers by providing minimal effort, they not only taint the reputation of the organization and cost it money; they also damage their own professional image and limit opportunities and rewards for themselves at the same time.

Henry Ford summed up the reason to develop and maintain a customer-centric organization when he said the following:

“It is not the employer who pays the wages.

Employers only handle the money.

It is the customer who pays the wages.”

– Henry Ford

For ideas and strategies on how to effectively create and maintain a customer-centric organization, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success and How to Be Great Call Center Representative.

About Robert C. Lucas – An Award-Winning Author and Customer Service Expert

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

In my book Customer Service Skills for Success, I define customer service as “the ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-of-mouth publicity and return business.”

Process Improvement Quote – Stephen Covey

by Robert W. Lucas

Process Improvement Quote – Stephen Covey

“If we keep doing what we’re doing,

we’re going to keep getting what we’re getting.”

– Stephen Covey

Customers generally do not like being kept waiting when your system is not functioning properly. They rightfully view their time as valuable. In today’s “I want it and I want it now” society, inconveniencing your customers will likely lead to emotional reactions, complaints and customer defection to a competitor. To expect them to patiently wait while a new cashier tries to figure out the registration codes, someone gets a price check because the product was coded incorrectly, you have to call the office for information or approvals, and so on, is unfair and unreasonable.

To counter potential problems, all employees should be empowered to handle customer complaints and issues to some degree. Additionally, they should be trained to constantly look for ways to improve the service delivery system and enhance the customer experience.

For ideas and suggestions on strategies to help create a more customer-centric environment, get a copy of Customer Service Skills for Success.

Who was Stephen Covey?

Stephen Richards Covey was born on October 24, 1932, in Salt Lake City, Utah. His formal education was done at the Brigham Young University, David Eccles School of Business, Harvard Business School, and The University of Utah. Stephen Covey was an American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker.

Stephen Covey’s most popular book was The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He also wrote numerous other books which include First Things First, Principle-Centered Leadership, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families, The 8th Habit, and The Leader In Me — How Schools and Parents Around the World Are Inspiring Greatness, One Child at a Time. He past away on July 16, 2012, at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center in Idaho Falls, Idaho.

Here are a few more amazing quotes by Stephen Covey…

Start with the end in mind.
Seek first to understand, then to be understood.
The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.
The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.
Effective leadership is putting first things first. Effective management is discipline, carrying it out.
Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall.
The way we see the problem is the problem.
There are three constants in life… change, choice, and principles.
Live out of your imagination, not your history.
Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.

Learn more about Robert C. Lucas, Your Customer Service Blogger, and Award-Winning Author

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Before you go, enjoy a few more quotes by Stephen Covey…

“There are three constants in life – change, choice and principles.”
“Make time for planning; Wars are won in the general’s tent.”
“Begin with the end in mind.”
“You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage – pleasantly, smiling, nonapoloegetically – to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way to do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside.”
“Put first things first.” Stephen Covey
“Seek first to understand, and then to be understood.” Stephen Covey
“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand. Most people listen with the intent to reply.”
“Trust is the glue of life. It’s the most essential ingredient in effective communication. It’s the foundational principle that holds all relationships.”
“Treat your employees exactly as you want them to treat your best customers.”
“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.”
“Leadership is a choice, not a position.”
“I am not a product of my circumstances, I am a product of my decisions.” Stephen Covey
“Strength lies in differences not in similarities.”
“Listen with your eyes for feelings.”
“The way we see the problem is the problem.”
“Most of us spend too much time on what is urgent and not enough time on what is important.” Stephen Covey
“Highly proactive people don’t blame circumstances, conditions or conditioning for their behavior.”
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.”
“He who has a why can deal with any what or how.” Stephen Covey
“Our ultimate freedom is the right and power anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.”
“The only thing that endures over time is the Law of the Farm. You must prepare the ground, plant the seed, cultivate, and water it if you expect to reap the harvest.”
“A personal mission statement becomes the DNA for every other decision we make.”
“Courage is not the absence of fear but the awareness that something else is more important.” Stephen Covey
“To achieve goals you’ve never achieved before you need to start doing things you’ve never done before.”
“Sow a thought, reap an action; sow an action, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character; sow a character, reap a destiny.”
“Every human has four endowments – self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom. The power to choose, to respond, to change.”
“I teach people how to treat me by what I will allow.”
“Motivation is a fire from within. If someone else trie to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly.”
“You can change the fruit without changing the root.”
“Our character is basically a composite of our habits because they are consistent. Often unconscious patterns, they constantly, daily, express our character.”
“Be patient with yourself. Self-growth is tender; it’s holy ground. There’s no greater investment.” Stephen Covey
“If I really want to improve my situation, I can work on the one thing over which I have control – myself.”
“What you do has a greater impact than what you say.” Stephen Covey

Customer Service Quote – Sam Walton

by Robert W. Lucas

Customer Service Quote – Sam Walton

“The goal as a company is to have customer service

that is not just the best, but legendary.”

– Sam Walton Founder of Walmart

Customer service is not just the job of customer service representatives and others on the “front line.” It is a crucial role that everyone from the CEO down must fulfill in order for an organization to be successful.

Certainly, the first people to come into contact with a customer are often those who answer the phones or respond to electronic messages as part of their job description. However, isn’t that something that everyone in the organization does every day? The challenge is that many people who are not hired specifically to fill a position designated as “customer service” forget that they also represent the organization each time that they come into contact with someone during the day. They often do not consider their peers or other employees as internal customers and fail to provide a level of quality attention that they deserve. This might happen when someone from within the organization asks for information, only to have to call several times to follow-up when it is not provided as promised.

The bottom line is that if every employee adopts a customer-centric approach to doing their job, their reputation and that of the organization will potentially soar. By creating a service culture where everyone takes responsibility for positive service delivery; everyone wins.

For ideas and strategies on how to develop a customer-focused attitude, get a copy of the book Customer Service Skills for Success.

Learn All About Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas Now and

Understand Why He is an Authority in the Customer Service Skills Industry

Robert C. ‘Bob’ Lucas has been a trainer, presenter, customer service expert, and adult educator for over four decades. He has written hundreds of articles on training, writing, self-publishing, and workplace learning skills and issues. He is also an award-winning author who has written thirty-seven books on topics such as, writing, relationships, customer service, brain-based learning, and creative training strategies, interpersonal communication, diversity, and supervisory skills. Additionally, he has contributed articles, chapters, and activities to eighteen compilation books. Bob retired from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1991 after twenty-two years of active and reserve service.

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Impact of the Recession on Customer Loyalty

by Robert W. Lucas

Impact of the Recession on Customer Loyalty

Many business owners and managers will tell you that they are struggling to maintain market share and service levels to guarantee customer loyalty. This has been a trend for a number of years and particularly became difficult once the recent economic downturn kicked into full swing. To off-set the trend, companies are striving to provide excellent customer service, create moments of truth that make the customer feel special and encouraging customer service representatives and employees at all levels to exceed customer expectations.

A big challenge is that companies realized that in addition to losing customers, they were also losing profits as many middle class and some higher-income customers retrenched on spending. To offset their reduced disposable capital, consumers have changed their spending habits, stopped eating out and traveling as much, limited their entertainment budget, shopped less for non-essential items, and cut services that they considered a luxury (e.g. grass, pool, and pest control services) and started handling those functions personally. They also started doing more comparative shopping, spent more time bargain hunting, attended yard sales and consignment shops, clipped more coupons, and in many instances traded down to less expensive store items or those that were not in the “status symbol” or name brand categories.

The result of all these cultural and societal changes has been that now that customers are accustomed to the “new economic normal.” They realize that they can actually live well and be comfortable at a lower spending level and using lower quality products. They even realize that in many instances they actually happy with their new lifestyle and spending habits. As a result, even though the economy has started a slow upward movement, consumers are now remembering the economic pain they suffered and are stashing away as much as they can in the event the recession comes back.

What all this means for retail businesses, service providers and product manufacturers are that they must retool their marketing and production mentality. They are reducing on-hand inventories, minimizing staff hiring and using part-time employees or outsourcing services and re-examining the way they deliver customer service in a changing world. In particular, they are changing the manner in which they show added value to their customers in an effort to gain and retain new ones.

The changing business environment has resulted in a winning proposition for many consumers who now feel that they are in a power position related to making purchases. This is especially true in instances of major buying decisions (e.g. cars, houses, property, recreational vehicles, and other higher-end items). Many realtors and dealers have experienced a large inventory surplus due to a slowdown in purchases and tightened lending policies from financial institutions. This has created a buyers market.

By doing adequate research and coming to the sales environment with knowledge of manufacturing costs, competitive pricing, and product and service details, the consumer is now often in a position to negotiate strongly and get pricing that is not only fair but also better than they could have gotten in the past. Retailers in nearly every type of product line and business are willing to negotiate and offer discounted prices when pressured by the customer to do so. They do this because they realize that their competitors will discount if they do not and the customer is likely to walk away, if not satisfied with an offer they receive. In addition, with a global economy and access to products from around the world only a mouse click away, companies realize that they must deal or die.

From a customer service perspective, it is imperative that managers develop a customer-centric mindset and that customer service representatives and everyone else in the organization adopt a can-do/must-do attitude when it comes to communicating effectively and working with customers. They must provide the best customer service possible in any instance where there is a of customer-provider interaction. Only through such initiatives will organizations be able to show customers that they offer the best value, care about their wants, needs, and expectations, and are willing to put forth the effort to help achieve customer and brand loyalty.

About Robert W. Lucas

Make Money Writing Books: Proven Profit Making Strategies for Authors by Robert W. Lucas at Amazon.com.

Superior Customer Service at Fields Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram

by Robert W. Lucas

Superior Customer Service at Fields Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram

When was the last time you actually “enjoyed” a car buying experience? The answer for me is never in the past 40 years,,, until I recently visited the Fields Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram dealership in Sanford, Florida to purchase a car for my wife.

As a customer service consultant and author, I was blown away with the personalities, knowledge, and candor of our sales representative (Ryan Eiland), Ty Brown (Sales Rep) and New Car Manager, Brian Williams. In an industry with an often dubious reputation, these guys and everyone else we encountered at the dealership were a breath of fresh air and epitomize what I believe stellar global customer service should be. In fact, we were so impressed with their willingness to go the extra mile for a customer and take the time to provide that personal touch related to demonstrating that they really do care about whether the customer is satisfied, that we went back two days later and bought a second car for me!

I only wish that more organizations could “get it” like these folks obviously do when it comes to recognizing that the customer is the most important person they will meet on any given day in their workplace. By simply taking the time to make things right and help customers feel welcomed, appreciated and valued, they could raise their sales volume exponentially. Having a customer-centric approach to doing business, as Fields does, is what separated the successful from the non-successful organizations in a competitive automotive marketplace.

I’d be curious to hear from anyone else about similar organizations and service experiences.

For ideas and strategies on how you can deliver higher quality service check out these books: Customer Service Skills for Success, How to Be a Successful Call Center Representative and Please Every Customer: Delivering Stellar Customer Service Across Cultures.