Customer Service vs. Customer Satisfaction
In the battle for business results, two contenders struggling for your attention are customer service and customer satisfaction. In checking popular published works at Amazon there are: 63,049 results for customer service; 20,084 for customer satisfaction.
Clearly there’s more expertise focused on customer service, with a three to one advantage. Is customer service the winner… the action you should focus on?
Looking deeper… and referring back to effective goals, you know that the best goals have scope and mean something to you, have risk, and shape your perspective. So does focusing on customer service as a goal, work better than focusing on customer satisfaction?
Let’s define customer service and satisfaction. As I define it, customer service represents your inputs, what you and your company actually do in serving your client or customer.
Customer satisfaction is your customer’s perceived outcome. Keep in mind that if your customer perceives it, then that is what’s real for him or her. Perceptions play a major role in customer satisfaction.
Let’s look at 2 examples:
Scenario 1:
You walk into a photo store telling the clerk you finally have last year’s Christmas photos out of the camera. You ask the attendant how long it will take to process them, and after looking at the stack of other film, and memory cards sitting there to be processed, he tells you it should be ready in three days.
You come back in three days, and it is not quite done. After an apology to you, he asks you to return the next day, and he promises that your pictures will be ready. You return on day four and, sure enough your pictures are ready. You pay for them and leave. How do you feel about (perceive) this transaction?
Most people who are presented with this scenario respond that they weren’t too thrilled to be coming back again, but it wasn’t too big a deal, except for the extra trip. They’re not upset… but they’re not thrilled either.
Scenario 2:
You walk into a photo store telling the clerk you finally have last year’s Christmas photos out of the camera. You ask the attendant how long it will take to process them, and after looking at the stack of other film and memory cards sitting there to be processed, she tells you it might take as long as six days. You say "Six days? That’s a long time!" She explains that they are really backed up right now with a specialty order of photos from an event in town, and apologizes, but adds that she will call if they are done earlier, asking if that is OK with you. You figure that you have waited this long, so what is another few days…
After five days, you get a call from the photo store informing you that the pictures are done. You drive over and pick them up and pay for them. How do you feel in this scenario?
Next, compare the two scenarios. The most common response is scenario 2 is better.
If that is true for you, then what am I missing? In scenario 1, you get the pictures in 4 days and are not so thrilled. In scenario 2 you get them in 5 days… and feel better about it? How did that happen?
Isn’t the difference in the expectation that was created?
For all you know, the photo processor in scenario 1 might have worked diligently all night, every night in order to attempt to complete his promise to you, falling just a little short. That would be maximizing customer service (his inputs). The second photo processor on the other hand, may have taken a day off to play golf.
The first store keeper estimated (…a perceived promise) based on hope. The second store keeper managed the expectations of the buyer. As a result, the perceived outcome (customer satisfaction), when measured against the expectation, was delivered better in the second scenario.
Many people think that you should maximize customer service. I disagree! Your most effective action is about managing the perceived outcome and your effective goal is to maximize customer satisfaction.
However, a strategy of lowered expectations without ever delivering any customer satisfaction is not a winning combination either. Think about your expectation of service from an airline, telephone company, or cable company…. or any company with always on voice mail, endless telephone menu hell, or my Not favorite, the computer generated voice that promises a speedy selection and never delivers… that you end up talking louder and louder at, like you’re stuck in some foreign country trying hard to communicate so the natives understand you…
In general now, is your expectation so low that you dread calling any company for service? Smart companies are taking advantage of this…
How about when you call a company and an actual live, friendly and interested human being answers? A live person who solves your problem? What perception would you have of that company?
Filed under Business Advice, Business Development, Grow Your Business by Michael Walsh.
