Page 106 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Unit 4: Customer Retention, Acquisition and Expectation

her in the first two or three minutes, he or she may notice the service and judge it as excellent. On Notes
the other hand, if a customer has to wait in line for 15 minutes, he or she may begin to grumble
and look at his or her watch. The longer the wait is below the zone of tolerance, the more
frustrated the customer becomes.
Customers’ service expectations are characterized by a range of levels (like those shown in
Figure 4.7) bounded by desired and adequate service, rather than a single level. This tolerance
zone, representing the difference between desired service and the level of service considered
adequate, can expand and contract within a customer. An airline customer’s zone of tolerance
will narrow when he or she is running late and is concerned about making it in time for his or
her plane. A minute seems much longer, and the customer’s adequate service level increases. On
the other hand, a customer who arrives at the airport early may have a larger tolerance zone,
making the wait in line far less noticeable than when he or she is pressed for time.

Figure 4.8: Zone of Tolerance

Source: http://www.open.ac.uk/cpdtasters/gb011/images/QU4.gif

This example shows that the marketer must understand not just the size and boundary levels for
the zone of tolerance but also when and how the tolerance zone fluctuates with a given customer.

Different Customers Possess Different Zones of Tolerance

Another aspect of variability in the range of reasonable services is that different customers
possess different tolerance zones. Some customers have narrow zones of tolerance, requiring a
tighter range of service from providers, whereas other customers allow a greater range of
service.

Example: Very busy customers would likely always be pressed for time, desire short
wait times in general and hold a constrained range for the length of acceptable wait times. When
it comes to meeting plumbers or repair personnel at their home for problems with domestic
appliance, customers who work outside the home have a more restricted window of acceptable
time duration for that appointment than do customers who work in their homes or do not work
at all.
An individual customer’s zone of tolerance increases or decreases depending on a number of
factors, like company-controlled factors such as price. When prices increase, customers tend to
be less tolerant of poor service. In this case, the zone of tolerance decreases because the adequate
service level shifts upward. Later in this unit we will describe many different factors, some
company controlled and others customer controlled, that lead to the narrowing or widening of
the tolerance zone.

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