Managing Customer Expectations Through Service Processes

The following report has been created in order to understand how Menulog, an Australian food delivery service can meet up to the customer expectations. It also reveals strategies that will help the company maintain a stable customer base by creating happy customers by providing services that met customer perceptions.

Running head: MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE
PROCESSES
Managing Customer Expectations Through Service Processes
Name of the Student:
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1MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
Executive Summary
The following report has been created in order to understand how Menulog, an Australian
food delivery service can meet up to the customer expectations. It also reveals strategies that
will help the company maintain a stable customer base by creating happy customers by
providing services that met customer perceptions. This report works closely on discussing the
different strategies that will help the company to retain their customers by elimination any
chances of customer defection.

2MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Classifying the Service Process.................................................................................................3
Managing Customer Expectations.............................................................................................7
Service Standards And Customer Retention Strategies.............................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
Reference..................................................................................................................................11

3MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
Introduction
For this particular paper, we will take into consideration, the instance of Menulog
which is an online food delivery service based in Australia. It specializes in connecting the
customer to a plethora of restaurants all over the country. It works constantly to provide food
delivery, piping hot to the customer. It has been designed to save the customers, the hassle of
cooking and enjoy a meal that is both stress-free and tasty. This online food delivery service
connects the customer to at least 11000 restaurants and at least seventy different types of
cuisine for them to gorge upon. Menulog can be accessed through the mobile-based app or
their own website which allows the customer to quickly order food with minimal effort.
Classifying the Service Process
A part of the Just Eat Group, Menulog thrives on delivering the quickest and most
flawless service that would leave the customers wanting for more. Menulog has a wonderful
reach which connects at least ninety per cent of the Australian population to great eating
joints, which includes street-side shacks and cafés to high-end diners which also
accommodates seat and dine or dine in services. This attribute of Menolg’s service can be
termed as simultaneity which enables Menulog to offer a service, in which both production
and consumption take place at the same time. Active in the food delivery scenario for 12
years, starting in 2006, Menulog has added in its repertoire, three million customers, active
on the platform. A part of its market expansion, Menulog added New Zealand to its market
base in the year 2012. In the year 2015, Menulog was acquired by the JustEat group which
made it all the more efficient and powerful. Thus, the place of service delivery remains
within Australia that is the country of origin and foreign lands like New Zealand. It offers
platforms for both iOS as well as Android devices. The nature of the service can be classified

4MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
as a tangible service which includes transportation of food from the restaurant to the customer
who had ordered for the food.
With the partnership of JustEat, Menulog achieved unbelievable growth that is
definitely an amalgamation of greater reach to both customers and restaurants as well as
grabbing opportunities to enrich itself by the leverage of global tech. Menulog encourages
restaurants to digitize their business through Menulog’s digital platform and guides them
through digital marketing so as to increase the reach of their business. Menulog also
pioneered the genius idea of introducing a brand new marketing model which offers delivery
service to restaurants which does not have a self-delivery system in order to bring to the
customers, food from their favourite local joints that would otherwise not be a part of a home
delivery network. Thus, it provides a standardized and continuous service which would
provide every customer with the delivery of the food following a continuous cycle of
regulation. In order to categorise the service process, it can be iterated that Menulog
processes its service which involves people and thus, it can be classified as a service which is
tangible and is directed towards people and not intangible objects such as assets or goods. It
requires the end customer to be physically present to enjoy their service. Therefore, it can be
called a people processing service.
Menulog can be confirmed to be a service factory since it involves staff that generates
business and sales for the firms. Contrary to a traditional factory, a service factory involves
people who would provide service for end customers. To define customer expectations it can
be referred to as a connotation that describes a set of behaviour or actions that any individual
may anticipate when they are associating with a service provider. The basics of customer
expectations would be something like fair pricing or high-quality service, but with changing
times customer satisfaction, the term in itself includes expectations like proactive services,
connected experiences that are shared through different channels as well as personalized

5MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
interaction (Goetsch & Davis 2014). This phenomenon can also be linked to the role theory
which confirms, that there exists, a set of learned behavior patterns which are followed by
both the customers and the employees of an organization while they interact. This has been
further backed up by the Script Theory which is essentially a service script that helps to
specify the behavioural sequence of the end customer and an employee during any kind of
service encounter. The wants and needs of the buyer in the economic marketplace can also be
referred to as customer expectations. Customers often come with preconceived ideas that they
associate with goods or services. These preconceived notions let the customer decide which
service they would pick and which one they would be avoiding due to a prior negative
experience. Besides, customers can set new expectations with products that have received
good reviews as well as boisterous advertisement and have gained successful media attention.
There are certain strategies that can be employed by any business organization in order to
meet customer expectations which are discussed in the following paragraphs.
The Strategy Of Openly Discussing Solutions
Any business should have a dedicated number of employees or experts who have an
in-depth knowledge of the business process as well as having a solution to every potential
problem. The dedicated team should discuss the possible solution to the client as an answer to
his or her woes or queries. If an organization can enlist possible solutions, it becomes easier
for them to engage the client directly with the solution and also to set realistic expectations
that do not leave the clients to be confused. For the example of Menulog, they must adapt to
this strategy by engaging customers directly through their tele-calling customer service that
answer millions of queries every day. To present to the customers a realistic picture of the
situation will leave the company with a reputation of being honest with the resolutions.
The Strategy Of Providing Clear Timelines

6MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
Customers may have many queries or can come forward to the dedicated customer
service team of Menulog with problems that need to be fixed as soon as possible. A query
may include of a money back or reimbursement policy and if given an expedited timeline
without proper commitment may leave the customer with frustration and mistrust towards the
company (Segoro 2013). Providing clear timelines and being realistic about it will only leave
the customers to be connected at a deeper level as well as showcase commitment to the
issues.
The Strategy Of Being Transparent And Honest
To manage customers in the most effective way, it will be necessary for Menulog to
influence the customer base to develop a deep level of trust towards the company. If any
customer service executive does not have a definite answer to any problem that a customer is
facing, then the company should avoid lying to the customer or showing them unreasonable
hope. Also, the customer service executives must consult a database as well as consulting
other team members to solve ongoing issues that are bothering the customers (Hennig-Thurau
& Hansen 2013). Any organization should avoid misleading the customers by keeping secrets
tucked away from them.
The Strategy Of Remaining Optimistic But Realistic
Being optimistic is fairly accepted but only when it is paired with authenticity. Being
realistic about the solution to any problem will only let the company met realistic targets that
are easy to achieve. For example, it is always better to tell a customer about the harsh truth
regarding a trade policy than to mislead that same customer with futile optimistic
consolations only in order for the company to fail its customer (Wang 2013). The company
and its representatives should always be clear about the expectations of the company from the

7MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
customers as well as letting them know about the different rules and regulations of the
company.
The Strategy Of Following Up Regularly
As an expanding business, Menulog receives many tickets that are generated every
day regarding queries from customers. It is always wise to assume that customers do
appreciate the service provider to touch base with them while maintaining close contact.
Menulog and its customer service representatives should always maintain contact even after a
ticket is closed. To ask for feedback from time to time regarding the quality of the service
provided by the company will let the customers feel valued. Besides, after every customer
support experience, a reiteration of the entire case handling must be presented to the customer
so that there is constant communication about the situation with the customer (Zhang & He
2014).
Managing Customer Expectations
A potential customer’s awareness regarding the offerings of an organization can be
termed as customer perception (Tripathi 2014). It also includes the consciousness and the
impression of the client about the services or goods provided by the company. It can also be
termed as customer defined service standards which must be met by the organization for the
satisfaction of customers. However, sometimes unfavourable incidents happen which
does not allow the customer to be left satisfied. In a high contact business environment
like Menulog, where delivery staff comes in contact with the end customer, sometimes
critical incidents might happen. An example of food being delivered late can be
discussed here. The incident might turn the customer into a loyal one if the critical
incident is handled by the customer service executive in a positive manner. A critical
incident may leave a customer frustrated for the time being but, if the company can

8MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
handle the situation, it reinforces the trust that the customer has put in the company.
Being one of the fastest growing food delivery services, Menulog should be utmost careful
while investing in media advertisement and print and paper advertisement. The way and
perspective, engaging which the company will promote its product, will eventually influence
the customers. Any connotations that the advertisement would perceive the company to be
with, the customer will automatically be forced to pick up the same notions regarding the
company or its services (Li 2015).
To ponder on customer satisfaction, it should also be mentioned that the
connotation of customer satisfaction depends on the role theory and the script theory.
The role theory suggests that there are certain roles of both the customer and the
service employee in a service sector. Role theory has conceived certain preset actions
which prepare the interaction which would be taking place in the service sector. For
example, the customer service personnel are bound to deliver food while the customer
pays. As long as both the sides are playing their role well, everything goes ahead
smoothly. Followed by this is the script theory which suggests that there are sequences
of actions that should both be performed by the service provider and the customer. For
example, the service of food delivery provided by Menulog would first let a delivery
personnel deliver the food, collect money in such a sequence, while the customer will
have to first order food, then receive the food and then pay money. This sequence must
be followed to have a successful service encounter. Any disruption from this sequence
will lead to customer dissatisfaction and confusion. Besides, the ZOT or zone of
tolerance acknowledges that the customers enter the service industry with different
expectations. The ZOT defines the gap which exists between the expectations of the
customer and the service they are receiving, which would definitely have some gap.

9MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
Apart from that, the company Menulog should have a keen eye to the reputation that it
has been building with the existing customer base, who could act as influencers to bring in
more customers for the company. Leaving happy customers will only encourage the existing
customers to recommend the company and their services to new customers. The type of
service encounter that Menulog goes through every day is the face to face encounter within
which the delivery personnels of Menulog directly interact with the end customer. The
customer contact level that Menulog involves itself with is high level of contact since the
representative of the company, which is in this case, a delivery boy comes physically close to
the end customer to interact and deliver the food.
Menulog also thrives on making the customers meet their expectations by tiering the
services. This essentially means that the company offers the customers an array of
personalized services that are available at an increasing price to suit their needs. For example,
the expedited delivery services would cost some extra bucks but would leave the customers
with an expedited food delivery. Moreover, there is another aspect to tap customer perception
and that is by providing fine quality interaction and services which they could experience
first-hand. The customers always come back to organizations or business if they would have
left happily the previous time. Thus the past excellent service vouches for and becomes the
biggest influencer on behalf of the company as it also helps to create a loyal customer base.
Service Standards And Customer Retention Strategies
The actions and activities which any business undergoes to reduce the rate of
customer defection can be referred to as customer retention policies (Lovelock & Patterson
2015). Customer retention helps any business to create a stable customer base who is a steady
number of people purchasing the goods or services offered by any company. It should be
remembered that the customer base can only be strong when the customers are getting high-

10MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
quality service from the very first association with the company. To retain customers,
Menulog should always ensure to deliver the commitments that they have promised. Apart
from that, being the customers trusted advisory and gaining trust through regular interactions
would be beneficial. Besides, taking precautionary steps or being proactive will also let the
customers be extremely satisfied as they would be impressed with the risk advisory and the
knowledge depth of the customer service team.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be inferred that the quality of service and the depth of faith that
the company Menulog can offer to the customers will only predetermine their path to success.
Keeping realistic commitments that they can meet easily would leave the customers
impressed as well as helping them maintain a large customer base who would vouch for their
superior service. In order to build faith and trust amongst the customer and the organisation,
Menulog should keep the process of the business as clarified as possible, with the customer,
above all, offering in-depth advisory and maintain a personalised relationship with the
customer will let the customers feel valued and thus create a strong business- client
relationship.

11MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS THROUGH SERVICE PROCESSES
Reference
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