Marketing: Customer Expectations, Satisfaction, and Service Quality

This report examines the crucial role of customer expectations in marketing, emphasizing the shift towards promotional tactics to enhance brand image. It highlights the importance of delivering on advertising claims by first building product and service quality. The discussion delves into customer expectations as the foundation of superior customer service and satisfaction, stressing the need to understand customer needs through active listening. It explores the SERVQUAL model for identifying gaps between customer expectations and actual service delivery, along with the challenges and strategies for transforming customer experience within organizations. The report also analyzes the relationship between customer expectations, satisfaction, and the impact of promotions, concluding with the unique characteristics of service businesses that require specific marketing segments. References to relevant research papers are included.

Running head: MARKETING
Marketing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Introduction
Organizations today have moved towards using promotional tactics for improving their
quality image in the market. Advertisements are placing importance on quality along with
aspects like reliability, workmanship and durability. It has become the responsibility of the
companies that they must first properly build up their quality of the products and services to live
up to the claims of their advertising. Customers are looking for solutions to their problems, they
are not looking for mere products. Knowing what the value needs of the customer asks for an
active listening of the customer’s needs, which would lead to actual acting on the information
(Brocato, Voorhees and Baker 2012).
Discussion
Customer expectations is the understanding of what it required for providing supreme
customer service that would bring superior customer satisfaction. The requirement of knowing
and realizing who are the customers and comprehend their wants are extremely important.
Customer expectation is a fundamental aspect of customer service and satisfaction and it sets the
benchmark in a way that mirrors on making sure of customer loyalty and repurchasing.
Delivering a good products or service to any customer would ensure the return of the customer
and even make sure the satisfactory experience would bring in a lot of word-of-mouth publicity
and more customers. Customer service is all about expectations, which gets shaped by the
experiences they had previously. It is the responsibility of the businesses to meet or surpass the
expectations customers have. Customer service either gets praised or criticized based on the
expectations. If the service is able to meet expectations then the company is doing exactly what
is expected and they would not receive any kind of criticism or praise (Daunt and Harris 2012).

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If any industry is known for having bad customer service then they have the opportunity
of getting excellent competitive advantage by upgrading to excellent customer service, if not
then average. Expectations of customers are forever evolving and people are using different new
ways of connecting with companies. Social media has become an important customer service
channel in organizations. In key terms, the association between any customer and business is a
trip. There is a fundamental meeting (be it online or eye to eye), where expectations (in a perfect
world) will be clearly settled. By then, the business begins the path toward passing on those
expectations. In case the expectations are met, the customer is satisfied, and is subsequently at
risk to return later on. The key issue here is that customer’s perspective of a business relies upon
the detachment between what the customer needs and what the customer gets. It's a touch of
startling to comprehend that beyond question the idea of customer service an association passes
on is as a general rule less key in choosing shopper steadfastness than how much an association
meets or outperforms "expectations" (O'Cass and Sok 2013). An association that has for the most
part poor service levels, yet pulls in customers as a result of settlement or price is not going to
persist financially, in light of current conditions, stood out from an association with customers
who have high expectations that are disappointed. That is one inspiration driving why numerous
associations are incredibly productive in spite of the way that their customer service is odious.
The opening among expectations, and what is passed on is close to nothing or non-existent
(Goddard et al. 2012). In an organisation, customer service gap is found if there is a difference
discovered between customer expectations and customer perceptions. The best way to close
these gaps is by comprehending customer needs and knowing customer expectations. The
SERVQUAL (service quality gap model) is a model in service quality management that can be
used for identifying gaps existing between customer expectations and the real services that are

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offered at the different stages of service delivery, and also for closing the gap and bettering
customer service.
Improvement of customer experience has become a huge feature of corporate strategy
and more executives are facing the decision of committing to their organizations for broadening
customer experience transformation. However, that is not enough for understanding that the
positive results of change are huge. The most immediate hurdle would be deciding on the way of
structuring the organization and its rollout and then deciding upon where and the way to get
started. These important issues are far-reaching and complicated as the customer experience
transformations often fail living up to the expectations. The base of such transformations ask for
organizations in making cultural changes and then requiring themselves both financially and
operationally (de Oña, de Oña and Calvo 2012). Cross functional customer journeys cut across
conventional organizational boundaries and bringing any change in this is difficult. It is
extremely vital that the service design is considered before starting - deciding on the structure,
examining the best sequence for the company and making sure service agents are engaged and
inevitable resistance is minimized. The company might also consider thinking about where to
start from for making sure of delivering near term impression. It is vital for attainment of
momentum and organizational buy-in and for the identification of funding and the capability of
reinvesting in the transformation (Ulaga and Loveland 2014).
Customer expectations and satisfaction are immovably related. Customers feel less
satisfied when they expect something from an association however don't get what they foreseen.
On the other hand, in case they have low expectations of an association and are charmingly
stunned, they may feel more satisfied than if they had elite necessities and feel they have been let
down. Abnormally, associations are not for the most part prepared to decisively envision what

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customers will suspect from them, and systems of social event and exploring feedback are
customarily basic. Consistently, a customer's level of satisfaction is dependent on the
expectations he has for an association. For example, if he envisions that an association will offer
incite service, nonetheless he encounters delays in the treatment of his order, he may feel
unsatisfied. In like way, if he believes an association will give a quality product and his purchase
has all the earmarks of being modestly made, he may feel sorrowful. Similarly, a customer may
feel disillusioned with an association in case he believes his business is regarded, yet an
association exhibits for the most part by empowering its agents to dismiss him, act rudely, or
disregard to respond reasonably to grievances. A great part of the time, customer expectations
and satisfaction are influenced by the promotions an association uses to offer its products or
services. For example, if an association exposes that it frames orders inside a particular time
portion however then fails to fulfill this, its customers are most likely going to feel bamboozled
by the advancement and frustrated (Victorino, Verma and Wardell 2013). In like way, if an
association advances itself as putting customer service to begin with, however then shows only a
typical level of stress here, its customers are presumably going to be less satisfied. In such cases,
the relationship between customer expectations and satisfaction is one the association influenced
with its publicizing claims. Every so often a customer's own particular presumptions around an
association — immaterial to advancing — can moreover impact the association between
customer expectations and satisfaction. For example, if a customer believes an association has
the authority to quickly and definitely investigate an equipment issue, however the association
can't give a finding instantly, the customer may feel let down. The same may stay steady if the
customer envisions that an association will recognize unprecedented orders yet it decreases to do
in that capacity. Numerous associations wrongly endeavor to meet acknowledged expectations as

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opposed to acknowledging what the customers' expectations genuinely are. If the expectations
are acknowledged, the association's needs may have all the earmarks of being off kilter in light
of the way that is does not by any extend of the creative energy grasp what its customers require
or consider by and large fundamental. In such cases and in light of the association between
customer expectations and satisfaction, finding convincing procedures for gaging customer needs
may show fundamental for the association's flourishing (Miles, Miles and Cannon 2012).
At one level, the theory of marketing has comprehensive application – the same
concealed concerns and norms apply whatever the possibility of the business. In any case, the
nature of a particular service business may deal with a need to put altogether more vital emphasis
on certain marketing segments, which along these lines could incite differing marketing
approaches. It is routinely battled that services have exceptional qualities that different them
from stock or made products. The four most ordinarily credited to services are:
Intangibility – services are to a tremendous degree reasonable and slippery.
Heterogeneity – services are non-standard and significantly factor.
Inseparability – services are regularly made and eaten up meanwhile, with customer
intrigue at the same time.
Perishability – it is unreasonable to store services in stock (Duverger 2012).
Conclusion
In conclusion, it has been found that organizations today have moved towards using
promotional tactics for improving their quality image in the market. Advertisements are placing
importance on quality along with aspects like reliability, workmanship and durability. It has
become the responsibility of the companies that they must first properly build up their quality of

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the products and services to live up to the claims of their advertising. Customers are looking for
solutions to their problems, they are not looking for mere products. Knowing what the value
needs of the customer asks for an active listening of the customer’s needs, which would lead to
actual acting on the information.

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References and Bibliography
Brocato, E.D., Voorhees, C.M. and Baker, J., 2012. Understanding the influence of cues from
other customers in the service experience: A scale development and validation. Journal of
Retailing, 88(3), pp.384-398.
Chang, M.Y., Chen, K., Pang, C., Chen, C.M. and Yen, D.C., 2013. A study on the effects of
service convenience and service quality on maintenance revisit intentions. Computer Standards
& Interfaces, 35(2), pp.187-194.
Daunt, K.L. and Harris, L.C., 2012. Exploring the forms of dysfunctional customer behaviour: A
study of differences in servicescape and customer disaffection with service. Journal of
Marketing Management, 28(1-2), pp.129-153.
de Oña, J., de Oña, R. and Calvo, F.J., 2012. A classification tree approach to identify key
factors of transit service quality. Expert Systems with Applications, 39(12), pp.11164-11171.
Duverger, P., 2012. Using dissatisfied customers as a source for innovative service
ideas. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 36(4), pp.537-563.
Goddard, M.G.J., Raab, G., Ajami, R.A. and Gargeya, V.B., 2012. Customer relationship
management: A global perspective. Gower Publishing, Ltd..
Miles, P., Miles, G. and Cannon, A., 2012. Linking servicescape to customer satisfaction:
exploring the role of competitive strategy. International Journal of Operations & Production
Management, 32(7), pp.772-795.

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O'Cass, A. and Sok, P., 2013. Exploring innovation driven value creation in B2B service firms:
The roles of the manager, employees, and customers in value creation. Journal of Business
Research, 66(8), pp.1074-1084.
Paluch, S. and Blut, M., 2013. Service separation and customer satisfaction: assessing the service
separation/customer integration paradox. Journal of Service Research, 16(3), pp.415-427.
Ulaga, W. and Loveland, J.M., 2014. Transitioning from product to service-led growth in
manufacturing firms: Emergent challenges in selecting and managing the industrial sales
force. Industrial Marketing Management, 43(1), pp.113-125.
Victorino, L., Verma, R. and Wardell, D.G., 2013. Script usage in standardized and customized
service encounters: Implications for perceived service quality. Production and Operations
Management, 22(3), pp.518-534.
Wang, C., Harris, J. and Patterson, P.G., 2012. Customer choice of self-service technology: the
roles of situational influences and past experience. Journal of Service Management, 23(1), pp.54-
78.