It is said that the main goal when it comes to addressing and dealing with customers is meeting their needs. This notion is entirely true. Every company’s objective in every stage of customer interaction must be just like that. How can an establishment acquire more customers if they do not even get the answer to their questions or purchase the products they want to have? Moreover, getting their needs met is what customers expect when they engage in any business transaction. If a company falls short of their expectations, they get disappointed, upset, or unhappy, and the company would lose its chances of impressing them or even gaining their trust.
In the aspect of customer service satisfaction, there are three levels of meeting customer’s needs. In the same way, there are also corresponding responses from customers on those levels of customer satisfaction.
Meeting Customer Expectation
This level of customer satisfaction simply pertains to addressing the needs of the customers. If a customer gets in a store to buy a dress, then the sales crew will offer assistance in providing that specific item and then the customer purchases it. If a customer calls in to make general product and service inquiries, the phone representative simply answers and offers information based on the questions asked. It is that simple, nothing more and nothing less for in the course of the interaction for this level. Yet, it still makes customers happy because they got what they want.
Going the Extra Mile
The second level of customer satisfaction is the same concept about “going the extra mile” for the customer. Simply put, the customer interaction now goes beyond the normal expectations of the customers. For example, if the customer wishes to purchase a laptop, the establishment can offer freebies such as a free webcam, which the customer did not initially expect to get. In a telephone inquiry, the customer may ask about the services offered by the company in general. Apart from giving them answers on a specific inquiry, educating them is something they do not expect to receive. If the customer has an issue with getting slow connection, educating the person on the possible reasons for such issue when it is not even asked for in the first place makes the customer feel surprised with such action.
Customers feel more than happy and contented with this level of customer service. They become pleasantly surprised in a sense that their impression towards the business becomes even better and their trust starts to build up.
Excellent and Proactive Customer Service
The third level of customer satisfaction is delivering excellent and proactive customer service. A business establishment may provide the customers what they want and meet their needs but this is a manifestation of a typical customer service. Not all customers expect to be greeted by friendly and courteous store assistants. Not every customer expects to hear a warm and accommodating tone from a phone representative on the other end of the line. But when a company shows an outstanding service coming from the staff, the customer becomes more than happy and surprised; the customer feels delighted.
Proactive customer service means service provided above average or on a superior level. Not many companies are able to project this kind of service because their staff or employees have probably been used to the average and mediocre ways of serving customers. Even the customers themselves are used to average type of customer service from many establishments. That is why when they encounter a business with outstanding quality of service or treatment, they get delighted and overwhelmed.
It is more than meeting their needs and educating them or going the extra mile. Excellent customer service encompasses all elements of the highest quality of service incorporating friendliness and courteousness from the staff, professionalism in their actions, competent and knowledgeable representatives, and excellent communicators.
The challenge for every business organization out there is to incorporate the goal of exceeding customer expectations in their customer interactions and not just simply being contented at meeting their needs or expectations. There is always an underlying distinction and it would show through the customer’s way of doing business and the consistency of it.
