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The Competitive Aspect

We tend to rate ourselves by Sales, Service, and Satisfaction (the three "S’s"). However, today the “S’s” need to make room for the big “E”: Expectations. To be successful over the long haul, you must meet or exceed your clients' expectations. Initial reaction tends to lay the blame of unmet expectations at the feet of sales. After all, doesn’t the sales department set the cornerstone of client expectations at the time of sale? Maybe not. Let's take a look at the competitive aspect of customer service....

This article is excerpted and digested from Jack Burke’s Creating Customer Connections: How To Make Customer Service A Profit Center For Your Company. Originally published by Merritt Publishing in 1997, this popular book remains in print at Silver Lake Publishing. Ordering information can be found by clicking the book title above.

“Competition is the keen cutting edge of business.” – Henry Ford

When it comes to determining and evaluating our competition, most of us have a tendency towards “tunnel vision”. We immediately think of the geographically closest rival with the same service or product. That may have been the case in a past era, but not today. Today your competition is every single business that touches your clients in any way, manner, shape or form. You may own a bicycle store, but your competition can include the local baker, dry cleaner, hardware store, or department store. Maybe even Walt Disney! It’s time to stretch our vision.

If we only rated ourselves by Sales, Service, and Satisfaction (the three S’s), our local rival would be the only competition. However, today the “S’s” need to make room for the big “E”: Expectations. Your “E” competition, unlike “S” competition, is no longer fenced within your industry. This competition runs the gamut of human experience. And, to be successful over the long haul, you must meet or exceed your client’s expectations.

Initial reaction tend to lay the blame of unmet expectations at the feet of sales. After all, doesn’t the sale department set the cornerstone of client expectations at the time of sale? Before answering, let’s first take a closer look at this powder keg of expectations.

A Magical Base

In today’s market, competition begins when a wide-eyed child exits Disneyland, where every “supercalifragilisticexpialadocious” expectation has been exceeded. From this magical foundation, consumer expectations continue to build as we experience: a bakery that holds true to the “baker’s dozen”; the owner of the local hardware store who guides us through a plumbing repair; the store that returns $1.98 to us because another store advertised something we bought for less. To compete in the arena of expectations, we compete with a consumer mindset that has been nurtured from birth.

Client satisfaction, built on professional sales efforts and effective service, is critical to loyalty, retention, and profit. However, if we are to truly build a long-term relationship with our clients, we must assess all our efforts against expectations.

Satisfaction = Sales + Service
Expectations

This formula brings a new responsibility to the successful business: the management of client expectations, which impacts both sales and service.

Perhaps one of the greatest examples of mismanaging customer expectations was an advertising campaign used by Ford a number of years ago. A ball bearing was rolled along the edges of the trunk and hood to demonstrate precision fit. Reality wasn’t quite that precise and service departments were visited with customers demanding that their hood,
trunk, and doors be aligned properly. (Some even brought ball bearings with them to make their point.) The advertising campaign created a level of expectation that was unreasonable at the time.

Many businesses have a similar problem. Client expectations are generally higher than the reality. When that occurs and expectations are not met, your future with that client is at jeopardy. Even when the expectations are unrealistic.

A Communicable Solution

Business must first learn to manage client expectations, before ever hoping to exceed them. This requires marketing that creates business, not problems. This requires sales efforts that build foundations on bedrock, not sand. This requires product delivery that educates the buyer as to specific reality, not assumptions. This requires service that can then exceed expectations, not just meet them.

A key element to the process of managing expectations occurs at the time your product or service is delivered to your client. Institute a delivery policy within your company, much as a quality auto dealer would have a standardized system for delivering cars to customers:

Review and explain exactly what has been purchased.

If you offer guarantees or warranties, they should be gone over in detail.

If there is a customer service procedure for future problems, make it known clearly.

If there is paperwork involved in the product or service, make sure that the client understands the contents (see the chapter on ADA).

If there are ancillary or optional items or services that the client might assume to be included with the purchase, clarify.

By way of explanation, check out clerks at retail stores should be trained to notice the purchase of battery operated items and remind the purchaser that batteries were not included. Not only does that prevent a client from experiencing the exasperation and frustration at having to make a later trip to buy batteries, it will also increase average revenues per sale. That is good management of expectations. Expand that into purchases that need assembly and review of the tools that might be needed, etc., etc., etc.

A recent example of mismanagement has occurred within the automobile industry at both the dealer and manufacturer level. For years tire manufacturers included road hazard warranties with the purchase of new tires. Those days are history. If you buy replacement tires for a vehicle, the sales person usually offers an optional road hazard warranty or a package program that includes it. You then can intelligently decide whether or not to include it with your purchase. That’s good! However, what about the tires on a new vehicle that you’ve just purchased. Do they have road hazard warranty? No. Does the dealer tell you that? Doubtful. Does the dealer tell you that you can go down the road to buy a road hazard warranty from the local outlet for the company that manufactured the tires? Very, very doubtful.

I personally polled a number of dealers as to why this isn’t explained to the customer. Some of the replies were: “I don’t want to tell them they need to spend more money,” “The tire manufacturer includes free tire rotation with the warranty package and I would lose that service business,” “The customer would just want me to throw it in the deal,” “The tire dealer might get their maintenance business."

That sort of expectation mismanagement backfires when the customer has a blow out–as I recently did. Knowing that the tires were warranted by the tire manufacturer, I went straight to a tire dealer. “The tire needs to be replaced Mr. Burke and the bill will come to $178. Didn’t your dealer tell you that you could purchase a road hazard warranty from us for $100 which would have covered this situation.” The tire dealer may be the messenger with the bad news, but the anger is aimed at the dealer.

I was lucky because that clerk was well trained in handling the situation:

“Mr. Burke, I’m sorry you didn’t have the warranty, but maybe I can help you out under our adjustment policy. If you want to buy the policy now, I’ll be able to sell you the tire at our cost and install it with balance for free. That will actually be less than purchasing the tire at normal retail.”

Concealing a potential problem is probably the worst case scenario of mismanaging expectations.

Preventive Management

Managing expectations at time of purchase is a quantum step forward in client satisfaction; but it is only one of many steps on the ladder that builds the relationships that create loyalty and generate profits.

Build your marketing programs on honesty. Don’t promise what you can’t deliver. When determining delivery dates, give yourself a little room. Clients are always irate when something is late, but excited when something is delivered earlier than promised. No one gives much thought to a purchase being delivered on time, that’s expected and will never thrill your client. Only when you surpass the expected do you truly impress a client.

Jack Burke is the president of Sound Marketing, Inc., host/producer of Audio Insurance Outlook, editor of ProgramBusiness.com newsletter, and author of both Relationship Aspect Marketing and Creating Customer Connections. For more information, please visit http://www.soundmarketing.com, call 1-800-451-8273, or e-mail jack@soundmarketing.com.