Customer Service Gaps—Part 1 (Adapted from “A Conceptual Model of Service Quality and its implications for Future Research,” A. Parasuraman et al, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 49, 41-50)

Think for a moment about your customers.  Seriously, don’t read any further until you’ve seen in your mind’s eye at least one customer.  How important is that customer to you—not to your business—but to you personally?  On a scale of 1 – 10 where 1 means “Strongly Disagree” to 10 meaning “Strongly Agree,” how would you respond to this statement?

“I would do anything possible to keep from disappointing that customer.”

No one wants to have disappointed customers, and yet we all do.  The question is “why?”  The authors of the referenced article identify several company-created service gaps that eventually lead to disappointed customers.  Our purpose in this Weekly Insight is to identify two of those gaps.  As a visual aid, I’ve adapted a chart from the article that may help you visualize where the gaps are located.

The Customer Gap

First, a customers come to your company to have their needs met and when they arrive, they expect a certain level of service.  And how does a customer come to realize this certain expected service?  As the chart shows, the customer’s service expectation usually comes from 4 sources:

·        Word of mouth communication

·        The customer’s personal needs

·        The customer’s past experiences

·        The company’s external communications to the customer

How many of you desire to have and retain satisfied customers?  Have you ever thought about what causes a dissatisfied customer? 

Customers are disappointed with your company when their perception of your company’s service falls below what they had expected.  This is listed as the “Customer Gap” on your handout.  Note that this Customer Gap depends on the size and direction of the 4 Gaps listed on the Company side of the chart. 

Let’s start with Gap #1: Not knowing what customers expect.  Why would managers not be aware of what customers expect?  The authors list 3 reasons:

·        They may not directly interact with customers.

·        They may be unwilling to ask about customer expectations.

·        They may be unprepared to address customer expectations.

Certain processes are usually missing when Gap #1 occurs.  For example:

• Inadequate marketing research.
• Lack of upward communication from front line employees.
• Lack of company strategies to retain customers and strengthen relationships with them.
• Lack of a service recovery system (gathering and responding to complaints—that’s an entire discussion in and of itself).

Now, based on what we’ve briefly discussed, score your company on Gap #1 from 1 to 10 where 1=I’m clueless what my customers expect to #10 which equals I know exactly what my customers want and keep current with their changing needs through good market research. 

Let’s move on to Gap #2 which is “not having the right service quality standards” in place.  Here I challenge you to make sure that your established company standards for service are in fact driven by customer needs.  Most companies focus on productivity and efficiency in their service offerings.  This is not bad until it starts to interfere with what the customer standard for service truly is. 

This may be exactly what an article in the February 20, 2007 Wall Street Journal is talking about—“Home Depot Tries to Make Nice to Customers.”  Home Depot grew to become the largest home-improvement chain largely on the strength of its skilled workers who were eager to impart their knowledge to do-it-yourselfers.  But customer service began to slip over the past six years.  “In order to cut costs, the company started hiring more part-timers and added a salary cap that drove off the more seasoned workers.”  The retailer also moved about 40% of workers to overnight stocking positions.  This left customers searching in vain for someone in an orange apron.  Under former CEO Robert Nardelli, who resigned January 2, 2007, Home Depot management “focused on measuring all aspects of the stores’ productivity and too often ignored shoppers.”  One customer commented, “Home Depot just got too big, too fast and took their eye off the ball.”  

How about your company?  Do you and your team still have “your eye on the ball” called customer service?  Take a moment and score your company on Gap #2 where 1=our service standards are internally generated and are focused on nothing but productivity to 10 where you believe you have struck a healthy balance between having service standards set by the customer and meeting company efficiency concerns. 

The Customer Gap is a function of four Company Gaps.  Our next issue will focus on Gaps #3 and #4. 

Keith 

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