The Importance of Managing Your Customer's Expectations

What processes does your company follow when it comes to managing your customer's expectations? Perhaps you've yet to define these processes. If that's the case, then consider the following scenario: A new customer calls and requests pricing. They place an order and the product ships. You immediately assume everything went well. So very easy wasn’t’ it? It’s usually with these types of orders that you drop your guard. You can be guaranteed that not taking the time to discuss the customer's expectations will come back to haunt you. Maybe not right away, but eventually it will. It’s typically on the follow up calls where you find out the customer was not satisfied at all. Now you have to start again and rebuild your customer relationship, and that is never easy.

What happens when you don't discuss the customer's expectations, or do not address them at all? Well, once they become upset or unsatisfied because your service did not meet their expectations, they will eventually dictate all future conditions of business. This is a worst case scenario, but one that happens to even the best sales & customer service professionals. Sales often don’t even realize how, why or when it has occurred. They just believe the customer is being difficult and unrealistic. Since it was never addressed, deciding that the customer’s expectations are unrealistic and unattainable, is somewhat disingenuous. How can anyone decide if the customer is being unrealistic when the conditions under which it could arise, was never discussed?   

The Sales & Customer Service Perspective   

Instead of thinking about what they may have done wrong, sales and customer service often rationalize the issue and come to the immediate conclusion they have done everything right, and it’s simply the customer who’s being difficult. It’s the easy way out. Blaming the customer is often what sales and customer service professionals will do when confronted with an upset customer. What they should do is to ask themselves what went wrong. The first question sales should ask when a client becomes upset, is “Is there something I could have done differently?” or “Did I properly address/discuss their expectations?” Instead, what they often say is the following:   

• “I just assumed they knew”
• “Well, what did they expect?”
• “What supplier/vendor does that?”
• “Why would we ever go that far?”
• “You can’t expect us to do that!”
• “What is this customer’s problem?”
• “I wonder if they treat all their suppliers this way?”   

The Customer's Perspective 

Since the customer now dictates their business conditions, the sales professional is immediately on the defensive and assumes a reactive role. The customer now assumes control and is in the drivers seat. It is a role they will not relinquish easily. Obviously, the customer’s view of what happened can be summed up in the following statements:  

• “You assumed wrong”
• “I expect the following”
• “All my vendors do that”
• “If you want my business, you’d better do the following”
• “You don’t have to do anything, but if you want to continue dealing with me, you’d better understand what our conditions are”
• “This is not how we do business…”
• “I don’t know who you are used to dealing with, but if you want to continue with us, you have to do the following…..” 

When a customer is disappointed, they naturally use that as motivation to push back. It is their way of saying you let them down. If you want to continue to do business with them, it will be on their terms. Whether intentional or not, they may even believe you lead them astray, purposely tried to deceive them, or did not take their business seriously. In some cases, they may have been reprimanded by those they report to. If they look bad internally, they can easily blame you for that. After this, it is rather natural for them to assert their control. They certainly don’t want to look bad again. 

To get a better perspective about how to properly set your customer's expectations, you can read the following two posts:

Are You Establishing a Good Rapport With Your New Customers?

Customer Management: Dealing With Unrealistic Customer Expectations 

After this, it is far more difficult to go back and establish your service criteria about what your company can, and can not do. By then, it may be too late, and has easily got the relationship off on the wrong foot. Having conditions of service dictated to you, will not only put you and your company in a difficult position, but will ultimately lead to failure if you try to service them in a manner not conducive to your business. It is not uncommon for sales and customer service then to go back to management with conditions that can not possibly be met in order to turn the account around.