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Unit 4: Customer Expectations and Perceptions of Services through Marketing Research
Implicit Service Promises: Implicit service promises are not explicit statements made by a service Notes
provider but are tangible clues that give a customer an idea of how the service will be. Tangibles
related to a service are in the form of personnel of the service provider, process, and physical
evidence.
Example: The price that is set for a Taj Holiday package serves as an implicit service
promise by the hotel group. Through its pricing, the Taj group promises to deliver to the
customer, his/her moneys worth and influence both desired and predicted service expectations
of the customer. The customer desires service that is commensurate with the pricing of the
package. In addition, customers predict to receive service of a particular standard due to the high
price associated with it.
Word-of-mouth Publicity: These include views or opinions of customers who have already
used the service, or surveys conducted by experts.
Example: The positive or negative opinion given by friends or relatives about a travel
agency will influence a customers desired and predicted service expectations.
Past Experience: A customers past experience influences his current expectations of service.
Example: A customer who has visited a McDonalds outlet in New York, USA will desire
and predict to receive service of the same standard at a McDonalds outlet in Mumbai, India.
4.2.3 Managing Customer Service Expectations
Service organisations should learn to efficiently manage customer expectations to gain a
competitive advantage. The following measures can help service providers manage customer
expectations:
Managing Promises
The first step in managing customer expectations is to manage the promises made by service
providers. In order to successfully meet the service expectations of customers, service companies
should promise only what they are confident of delivering rather than making promises which
are difficult for them to fulfil.
Example: Consider the case of a courier company that claims it can deliver consignments
anywhere in the world in three working days but messes up on a certain consignment by not
only failing to deliver it within the stated time but also losing the contents of the package in
transit.
This gives the customer sending the consignment, a very unpleasant service experience because
of the failure of the company to deliver what it promised.
Did u know? Some service providers intentionally under-promise the service to exceed
customer expectations at the time of service delivery.
However, this kind of practice will reduce tile competitive attractiveness of the service. On the
other hand, over-promising will increase tile customers expectations beyond the companys
ability to meet them. Therefore, firms should make an honest representation of their capacity to
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