L.O 1.3 Customer Service - Customer Expectations
Customer Expectations
1.3 Explain the importance of managing customer expectations
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Customer Expectations
1.3 Explain the importance of managing customer expectations
Customer Expectations
Customers are important for most organisations in the travel and tourism industry to ensure business success. An organisation must be able to understand and manage their customers expectations.
Due to technology, today's customers more knowledgeable and critical than ever before so their expectations and demands are continually changing.
An organisation must keep ahead of their competitors to find ways of anticipating and subsequently exceeding customer expectations.
However, before we can look at that we need to define what we mean by the term - Customer Expectations.
What is meant by Customer Expectations
What is customer expectation?
When we refer to the customer expectation, we’re talking about everything that a customer expects from a product, service or organisation. These expectations are formed in the minds of customers based on their individual experiences and what they have learnt, combined with their pre-existing experience and knowledge.
Managing Customer Expectations
Good communication
Increase loyalty
Monitor the market
Improve expertise
Follow up on feedback
Good communication
a) Ensure all the information you post to your website is accurate, complete, consistent and up to date
b) Make sure the language you use in all your online and offline communications is appropriate for your customers. Don’t confuse them with technical jargon and ensure you’re engaging them with the right language and tone of voice
c) Ensure any video or visual messages from your organisation are aligned with your other communications
d) Be responsive and timely with your social media communications
e) Adequately train staff involved in direct customer communications, so the information they provide is consistent with any other communication channels that you use
f) In situations where you can’t provide an instantaneous response, try to give your customers as estimate of how long they will need to wait.
Good communication task
In a group imagine that you are working in a travel agency, where you are communicating with different types of customers every day. How would you effectively communicate with the following customer situation?
An elderly couple are very distressed because they need to cancel a holiday that they have booked with you as the husband needs to have an operation
A group of five friends (aged 18-21 years) want to book a holiday but have no idea of where they want to go, how much they want to spend, when they want to travel or how long they want to travel for.
A partially deaf customer wants to receive a quote for a flight only from Belfast International to Amsterdam with a low cost airline but do not want to book today. They want to talk to their partner before they confirm the booking.
Increase loyalty
Every organisation should foster customer loyalty as it costs far less to retain a customer than create a new one.
Think of ways an organisation can retain customers:
Increase loyalty
Examples of ways to retain customers:
Using their names to be personal
Ensure each customer is made to feel special (How can you do this?)
Always thank them for their custom and loyalty
Maintain regular contact with them
Monitor the Market
Your customers’ expectations are likely to have been greatly influenced by services they receive from your competitors.
If a customer has previously used an efficient online chat facility on your competitor’s websites or have received a great service from their social media channels, they will expect the same from your organisation.
So, you need to be aware of what your competitors are doing to meet customers' expectations
This relates to all areas of customer service, for example online, face to face, physical resources. How could you monitor your competitors?
Improve Expertise
Staff should have great product knowledge and expertise
This means every staff member from those involved in direct customer communications, for example ticketing and sales staff, marketing
All staff should be trained and confident in their skills, so that they are able to manage and meet customer expectations
Follow up on Feedback
Customer experience can be greatly affected by whether or not an organisation follows up on feedback
Due to advancements in technology, organisations can receive customer feedback in many forms both publicly and privately
Customers use social media and other platforms to provide both positive and negative feedback. It is important that organisations respond to this feedback accordingly
Follow up Feedback task
Ryanair has become notorious for its responses to feedback on social media
Twitter Erupts After Ryanair Posts Hilarious Response To Window Seat Complaint (extra.ie)
Is this good customer service or marketing?
Follow up Feedback task
Have a look at easyjet's response to an online review on X
Oops: EasyJet Does Social Media Very Wrong - One Mile at a Time
What is your opinion on this response?
Do you think it is good or bad customer service? Why?
