I’ve been sitting here reading yet another article on customer service and thinking yeah,yeah, same old, same old, yadda, yadda, yadda ***. Then is suddenly hit me, there is an expectation gap between customers and businesses. Not only that but customer service expectations continually escalate, they are expecting more and more.

Customer service expectation gap

I learnt a little about ‘the audit expectation gap’ when studying Audit for my Accountancy qualification, this goes quite away back now so I’m relying on memory. In audit it’s about the users of audit reports. There is an expectation of auditors to pick up issues like fraud within in a business. And given recent  events around the globe you can see that it is/was just not the case.

Like wise there is also an expectation gap between customers and business. Customers demand, in the name of the all important customer service, for businesses to go above and beyond what you as a business owner would consider reasonable.

Examples of customer service escalating

Here are 2 examples of what I mean, that have happened to me in the last month.

1 – I have been importing a brand of children’s shoes into New Zealand. Now we have laws governing faults of products and that the goods are required to be fit for purpose. A customer emails me on the ‘brand’ website from the other side of the country and says that some sandals that were purchased in September and given to a child as a Christmas present had fallen apart on the second wear… and that it was not a sizing issue as the shoes still fitted. Now, what happens allot is that people buy pre-walkers ( as in before walking) and expect then to last when a child is walking around on rough surfaces, most are simply not designed for this. Also they can say the fit and actually be way too small!

The first port of call with a product issue is to go back to the retailer, who then deals with the manufacturer or distributor. So I asked the customer where she purchased the shoe. The email I got back was that they were purchased in Perth, Australia ( for those who may be unaware, this is a completely different country) and the style was not one that I carried. I apologised and said that there was nothing I could do. This was the truth as I had stopped importing the shoes, have not many left and have no contact with the manufacturer. Even if I still did deal with them they could not have done anything anyway.

This was not good enough for the customer and she was never going to purchase the brand again.

What can I do, if I refunded her in the name of good customer service then I would be out of pocket, and ultimately this means less money to feed my children. There is a cost in buying goods overseas that are ‘cheaper’ and ‘better’ – but that’s another subject.

2 – I served a customer who was looking at some sandals.  I didn’t have the the correct size, so kindly ( I thought) in the name of good customer service wrote down the style and style number so that she could search on the internet for them. She came back 3 weeks later with piece of paper in hand and insisted on trying the sandals on again to ‘check on what size she should buy’, which was written down as well. I had to get a few sizes bring them out for her to try on again. A complete waste of my time and energy, she had NO intention of buying from me.

Conclusion

These examples show what’s happening in my world, that customer service expectations continually escalate. Because people know that businesses are scared of a bad reputation they will now go to extremes in what they expect the businesses to do. In the food industry there are some customers who go out of their way to find fault to get a free meal. How much do we have to take? So much depends on your buisness, the relationshio you have built up with that customer, your local legal requitrements and your financial circunstances at the time. However, I dare to suggest  that there has got to be a point where you as a buisness owner can say STOP that is far enough. Customers that expect Customer Service that boarders on exploitation should not be tolerated.

*** apologies if this terminolgy is incorrect, you learn quite a bit watching too much TV, but you don’t necessarliy pick it up and use it correctly, remember I’m on the other side of the world 🙂