A few years ago I read a great article by Parasuraman, Berry & Zeithaml called ‘Understanding Customer Expectations of Service’ from the Spring 1991 Sloan Management Review.  The article looks at customers of service businesses and helps us understand what their expectations are.

 

It stands to reason that if we want to provide great customer service, we need to understand what our clients think great customer service looks like.  Spending time understanding their expectations can lead to more effective results.

 

The authors summarise customer service expectations into five areas: reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, assurance and empathy.  We’ll cover these in more detail below, together with some examples.

 

Reliability

This aspect of service delivery is all about doing what you said you were going to do when you said you were going to do it.

 

Have you ever waited at home for a tradesman to arrive hours later than they’d promised?  Or been frustrated that the person on the phone who promised to call back with some important information regarding your insurance hasn’t called?

 

When you’re selling a service, customers use reliability as one of the important clues to make a decision about whether or not to use your services.  You see, when they can’t see your physical product, they look for other cues that demonstrate whether you’ll be able to deliver the promised product.  Do you do what you say you’ll do?  This means when you say you’ll call them tomorrow, you actually do.  Or when you promise to post some documents, they arrive on time and the clients don’t have to call your office to follow them up.

 

If you say you’re going to do these little things and you actually do, then people have faith that you’ll be able to deliver on the big service they’re buying from you.

 

As an absolute minimum, if you want to meet your clients expectations, do what you say you’re going to do.

 

If you want to exceed their expectations, read on and do the next four things well.

 

Tangibles

How do you make your service come alive?  It’s hard for me to show a client a mutual fund, but I can talk about the companies they deal with every day that the fund invests into. 

 

As a client interacts with your service experience, they use the tangible things they see to make decisions.  If your offices look messy and untidy, this affects their perception of your service. 

 

What about when you stay in a hotel and they put that paper sash across the toilet lid.  It’s there as evidence that the toilet has been cleaned.  You wouldn’t necessarily notice the clean toilet by itself, but the sash draws attention to it.  The implication is – if the toilet is clean, the rest of the room must also be clean.

 

I’ve been in waiting rooms that have magazines from 5 years ago in the magazine rack.  Maybe it’s just me, but my brain thinks that maybe that business is stuck in a mindset of five years ago, and maybe they’re not up with the latest ideas and strategies that I need to know about.

 

Have a good hard look about the physical elements to your service – your office, appearance, documentation you use etc.  Does it convey to your clients that you’re professional and capable?

 

Responsiveness

Are you interested in helping customers?  Being responsive means understanding that when a client calls with a query, they are responded to quickly.

 

We recently changed the provider for our home phone.  It was an interesting experience.  When we called the sales area, we spoke with a live person very quickly.  Once we were an existing customer and had queries about the service not working properly, we were on hold for over 20 minutes before we got to speak with someone.  This shows to me that the company really isn’t that interested in me.

 

How do you show that you’re responsive?  One thing we do is try and return all phone calls on the same day we received them so our clients understand they’re important to us. 

 

How willing are you to help clients?  How can you show this?

 

Assurance

When a client deals with your organisation, do they have the confidence that the employees are capable and able to do their jobs well? 

 

We recently took our dog to our regular vet to get them to look at a lump that had developed on her side.  We were seen by a younger vet (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) and, after a brief feel and a quick blood test, she made a diagnosis that involved surgery.  To be honest, we felt that she’d rushed things a bit and maybe hadn’t done a complete diagnosis.  Of course, the cost of following her advice would involve a significant financial outlay as well as the mental pressure of having a dog have surgery.  As a result, we took our dog to another vet for a second opinion.

 

You see, when I haven’t got faith in your ability to deliver, I’ll question the things you suggest.

 

In your service business you need to find ways to convey your credibility to clients.  One very effective way is through the use of client testimonials.  Potential clients can read about how you’ve helped someone similar to them, and this gives them confidence that you’ll be able to help them in a similar fashion.  If you don’t have any existing clients who will give your testimonials, use case studies instead that show how your advice could benefit a particular type of client. 

 

Empathy

This last point is all about showing the client that you care about them and their personal situation. 

 

In our business we have a phrase “It’s not about the money”.  As financial planners, in one sense it’s actually all about the money.  But it’s not.  It’s about wanting to understand what the money represents to our clients – what are the things they want to do with it.

 

At the moment we’re dealing with the extreme market volatility.  We have clients who have lost 20% or 30% over the past year.  In our conversations with those clients we’re taking a lot of time to just sit and listen, and find out how they really feel.  We understand the pain they’re going through. 

 

We’ll say things to them that other clients in a similar position have already said.  If they’re retired, a popular phrase is ‘I can’t go back to work to recoup my losses’.  I’ll say to clients ‘I understand that you can’t just go back to work to recoup your loss’.  Most clients will nod their head and agree – they’re seeing that we understand how they feel.

 

Most people just want to be valued as an individual – that’s what empathy is all about.

 

Putting it Together

If you want to meet your client’s expectations, the best thing you can do is be reliable – deliver the service you say you’re going to deliver.  In other words, give them the outcome they’re expecting.

 

But if you want to exceed their expectations, you need to have a service process in place to deliver the elements of tangibles, responsiveness, assurance and empathy.

 

Think about a time in your life where you’ve had an experience where your expectations were exceeded.  How did they do it?  Chances are it wasn’t from just doing what they’d promised, but it involved one of the other four elements we’ve discussed.

 

Have a thought about your business and think of innovative ways you can deliver these five elements of service so that you don’t just meet the expectations of your clients, but you exceed those expectations.

 

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.