Customer satisfaction is closely related to their expectations of a company. Companies must accurately predict and meet customer expectations to avoid dissatisfaction. Advertising and preconceived ideas can also influence expectations. Effective feedback collection and analysis is critical for business success.
Customer expectations and satisfaction are closely related. Customers feel less satisfied when they expect something from a company but don’t get what they expected. On the other hand, if they have low expectations of a company and are pleasantly surprised, they may feel more satisfied than if they had high expectations and feel let down. Interestingly, companies are not always able to accurately predict what customers expect from them, and feedback collection and analysis systems are usually important.
Often, a customer’s level of satisfaction depends on their expectations of a company. For example, if you expect a business to offer quick service, but experience delays in processing your order, you may feel dissatisfied. Similarly, if he believes a company will deliver a quality product and his purchase seems cheap, he may feel unhappy. Also, a customer may feel dissatisfied with a company if they feel that their business is valued, but a company demonstrates otherwise by allowing its employees to ignore them, act rudely, or fail to respond appropriately to complaints.
In many cases, customer expectations and satisfaction are influenced by the advertisements a business uses to sell its products or services. For example, if a business advertises that it processes orders within a certain time frame but fails to deliver on this, its customers are likely to feel misled by the advertisement and dissatisfied. Similarly, if a business advertises itself as customer service first, but then shows only an average level of concern in this area, its customers are likely to be less satisfied. In such cases, the connection between customer expectations and satisfaction is one that the company has influenced with its advertising claims.
Sometimes a customer’s preconceived ideas about a company – unrelated to advertising – can also influence the relationship between customer expectations and satisfaction. For example, if a customer believes that a company has the expertise to quickly and accurately diagnose an equipment problem, but the company is unable to provide a diagnosis right away, the customer may feel disappointed. The same can be true if the customer expects a business to accept special orders but refuses to do so.
Many companies make the mistake of trying to meet their assumed expectations instead of learning what their customers expect. If expectations are assumed, the company’s priorities may seem out of control due to the fact that it doesn’t really understand what its customers want or consider to be more critical. In such cases, and given the relationship between customer expectations and satisfaction, finding effective ways to measure customer needs can prove critical to business success.
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