Customer needs and satisfaction and customer service

Customer service is any work that one does for the one’s customers which enhances the customer experience that eventually leads to customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is the overall feeling of contentment with a customer interaction. Such as calling the customer by their name, being courtesy and enthusiasm and to be excellence in follow up are one of the examples of customer service.

And as for the introduction of this assignment given, there are two questions to be answered. The answer for the first question would be an explanation in detail about 5 basic needs of a customer. The answer for the second question would be about customers’ own unique sets of expectations either in positive or negative way of a 5 star hotel, international fast food chain and travel and tours company.

Introduction (Q1)

Everyone have their own needs, so do the customers. Being the customers, there would and could be many needs, wants and expectations however; there are 5 basic needs of a customer. And the 5 basic needs of a customer are service, price, quality, action and appreciation which would be explained in detail below.

Question 1

As mentioned in the introduction for this question, there are 5 basic needs of a customer which are service, price, quality, action and appreciation.

First of all, service, as the word itself, customers need, want or expect services. Services are expected in almost everywhere nowadays since they are a part of the products. Services come in 2 ways, one is in way of a shorter level of purchase and the other one is in a longer level of purchase. The difference between them is that the shorter level of purchase is spontaneous, which means that it is not programmed and planned, unlike the longer level of purchase.

For example, there will be a dining out for a company’s anniversary in about an hour, and the company has only reserved a table in a private room in one of the restaurant leaving just an hour for the reserved room in the restaurant to get ready for such an event, which would be a perfect example for the short level of purchase. However, if the company has reserved earlier like a day before or at least few hours before, the restaurant staffs would have more time for the preparation and strictly no mistakes could be allowed or as well as accepted since they have given enough time for the preparation of the coming event which could be one of the examples of the longer level of purchase. On the other hand, some or little of mistakes could be forgiven on case of shorter level of purchase since the restaurant was not given enough time for the proper and perfect preparation unlike the longer level of purchase which eventually goes to the company’s fault.

The second need is the price, which is also known or can be defined as financial resource. Prices can be considered cheap, reasonable or expensive based on the customers and their own perceptions of the prices for the particular product and service. Of course, when it comes to prices, quality follows. Quality, as the third need out of the 5 basic needs of a customer, is measured or considered by how much the customer can make use of it and how useful it is to the customer, durability and functionality. Many of quality-minded customers, those customers who are willing to pay as much as the price asks for in order to get the qualified product or service, would not think much of the price and consider that it is expensive as long as the quality is there, form of customer satisfaction.

For example, it is simple in a sense that whether a customer chooses to buy a bag which costs 10 bucks for once a month since the bag gets worn real fast, instead of buying a bag which costs 100 bucks for once a year since the bag can last long for a year. It is as simple as the choice given above. If the quality is there, customers would not want to take trouble to buy a bag once a month, which would cost the 120 bucks a year. The concept is always there, you get what you pay for.

Action, as the fourth need, comes in when a problem arises. It is something like an A/S service, after sales service, when a problem occurs, the customer service must be accessible for the customer so that the customer can refer to the customer service. As soon as the customer gets the problem or gets the statement of the problem, the customer should be responsive, which means it requires the customer service immediacy of respond so that the customer can accept and wait for the solution for the problem she or he is facing. Action also includes the feedback part, the feedback is necessary for the customer service in order to catch the idea of expectations of the customer and also to improve their service skill for their own good. Also, outsourcing is required. In case the problem is a big problem or a problem that the customer service is not familiar with, the help from other department or the higher level of the department is needed in order to solve the problem.

For example, a customer buys a product from a shopping mall, and she came back the day after for an exchange of the product since she was not satisfied with the product, of course, unused, which could fit for the example of an arise of a problem though its not a serious problem. She went to the customer service and the customer service was new and was not used to the exchange of item policy therefore, she calls someone who is in a higher level than her for help, which shows that the customer service is accessible and also an example of outsourcing.

As for the last need, the 5th basic need of a customer is the appreciation. Every customer like to be appreciated, it is the fact. If a customer is not appreciated, she or he would prefer to go somewhere else where appreciates her or him more than the previous place where does not appreciate her or him. Though a customer is being profitable to the organization, and yet the customer service in the organization does not know how to appreciate the customer, it is not considered as an excellent customer service. Appreciating a customer is not hard after all, it is easy in a sense that showing that the customer is appreciated truthfully and sincerely by saying thank you or kowtowing at the customer is pretty much enough to show the customer that the organization does appreciate him or her.

Conclusion (Q1)

To conclude for the first question which was based on the 5 basic needs of a customer, I think it would be better if new trends are to be used in order to fulfill the 5 basic needs of a customer better than now, in such a way which customer approach a business interaction and the way they respond them.

In order to fulfill the 5 basic needs of a customer more, considering some factors to achieve to excellent customer would be another great idea, such factors include, developing skills like communication skills or interpersonal skills and etc, empowering of employees as in giving the right proportion of the authority to the employees so that the employees would not depend too much on the upper level of department and also to let them have the rights and the confidence in their job, technology and current information which means to be updated to the latest information as well as the technology. To examine performance is another fact, this is to see how well does the customer service works everyday, customer satisfaction could be another fact in a sense that the customers must be satisfied with what they get in order for them to return to the business or the organization and lastly to put yourself into the customers’ shoe would help to understand what the customer wants and also to catch the ideas of their expectations so that the customer service could enhance their skills of serving and servicing the customer.

Introduction (Q2)

All customers have their own unique sets of expectations. Expectations may be positive or negative. Organizations must periodically attempt to determine what their customers expect from their customer experience. Details and list of the top five expectation that customers would have of the 5 star hotel, international fast food chain and travel and tour company.

Question 2

As mentioned above in the introduction, every customer has their own unique sets of expectations which could be either positive or negative. Positive expectations are the expectations and satisfaction they seek for in products or services. Negative expectations are the disappointments from the expectations they had for the products or services which could also defined as dissatisfaction.

First of all, the expectations that customers would have of hotels might strongly differ in dependence of the star category of the accommodation because the higher category of the hotel, the more customers expect for satisfaction and the more the customers expect, the higher percentage of them getting disappointed once they do not get what they expected. However the top five fundamental expectations that most of the customers have of different categories of hotels are cleanliness, friendliness, good food, a television set in the room and service then only location and price issue comes in. Base on the answers answered to several questions regarding the expectations of the customers towards the different categories hotels, “good service” and “service” are listed separately, assuming that high quality service was meant by respondents stating “service”.

For example, customers staying in one or two star hotels verbalize much more fundamental expectations than the remaining guests. Such issues like a shower, availability of food or a comfortable bed were mentioned. Customers staying in three star hotel, mostly share the expectations to get good food, have a TV in the room and an own toilet as well as the price issue, whereas customers staying in higher hotel categories do not usually mention price or value-for money. Guests staying in five star hotels on the other hand expect good service, a good location, pleasant atmosphere, large rooms, comfort in general as well as the availability of internet more often.

Moving on to the disappointments, the negative expectations of the hotels regarding different star categories are very distinct. The major issues when it comes to disappointments of the customers toward any category of the hotel are hygiene and cleanliness, followed by weaknesses in the fields of room design and setup, personnel and service. Both location and price do not represent major factors of dissatisfaction. Mostly in five star hotels, customers are dissatisfied with the feeling that the offer was bad in quality as well as the service and the personnel. On the other hand, the cleanliness and noise problem are the issues of dissatisfaction if the customers who stay or accommodate in the lower categories of hotels such as three star hotels and lower categories than three star hotels which would be two or one star hotels, most of the dissatisfaction issues would be more focused on basic or fundamental issues such as bed and food and etc.

To conclude about the positive and negative expectations of the five star hotels, the dissatisfaction very strongly mirrors the expectation. Although there is some asymmetry in the general frequency distribution for example friendliness and good food are expected much more often than stated in the list of dissatisfaction factors, the differences between star categories of the hotels mirrors the results arrived at from the expectation point of view. As mentioned before, the fundamental issues are named more often by customers staying in lower hotel categories, whereas luxury hotel customers express their disappointments with intangibles such as service, quality in general and personnel far from often. Concerning the central hotel attributes, the cleanliness is in the lead, no matter whether the issue of hotel attribute importance is seen from the expectations or the dissatisfaction perspective.

Friendliness and good food still accounted as the statements on expectations each. From the dissatisfaction point of view, weaknesses in the fields of room personnel, service and staff are also one of the most mentioned issues. Strong differences between customers staying in different hotel categories can be detected both from the expectation and the disappointment perspective. Lastly, the general finding concerning these differences is, that the customers in lower categories are more concerned about the fundamental hotel components, whereas luxury customers emphasize the intangible aspects more.

Secondly, the positive and negative expectations of international fast food chain. There are many expectations expected from international fast food chain such as cleanliness, speed of service, interest in correcting errors, reasonable prices, accessibility and many others. Of course, even if the very top five expectations cannot always be same, since every customers have their own perceptions and different way of thinking as well as expectations either in positive or negative way.

Despite of so many expectations, there are a lot of same or similar expectations such as the ones mentioned above like, cleanliness, speed of service, and interest in correcting errors, reasonable prices and accessibility. Basically, putting myself into one if the customers’ shoe, I would expect the same, Cleanliness which also includes the pleasing environment, is in the lead since even fast food chain, is under the category if restaurants, which deals with food. Counting on the facts, no one would want to enter unclean place and to be served by a not properly dressed staff. And also, cleanliness does affect or mirrors very much on health issues therefore, cleanliness is in the lead of most customers’ expectations, if the place is clean, it would also represent the pleasing environment, which the customers would be pleased to dine in.

Second expectation, speed of service, is also one of the leading expectations among the customers visiting or dining in the international fast food chain. It is because it concerns one of the reasons that customers find or choose to have their meal in fast food restaurants, being low priced, served quickly, and easily packed. Therefore, speed of service must be as quick as possible in order to satisfy the customers’ expectations. “Interest in correcting errors” attitude is required from every staff, since it is the third factor. Many of the staff would have an idea that since it is not their own business they are not bothered to serve the customers to their best, this should be fixed. And as customers are always right, if any mistakes made by the staff also, they should try to best to fix or at least show that they are trying to change their attitude and overcoming their lacking points. The above action can actually make the customer feel satisfied and make them feel they are appreciated.

Reasonable prices and accessibility cannot be missed out s well. Since all international fast food chain has got their own reasonably fixed price for every product that they are selling. It would not be a big problem, as it is fixed reasonably according to the customers’ expectations. Accessibility should be easy for the customers as they might want o go and have their meal anytime of the day, if it is operating for 24 hours, it would be better. For example, a customer wants to eat something in the middle of the night, and since it is in the middle of the night, most of the restaurants would have been closed, which will leave the customer unsatisfied for the whole night therefore, in order to get or make them as one of the regular customer and to satisfy their wants and to fulfill their expectations, it is better if the restaurant operates for 24 hours, so that it makes the customer to access easily and whenever they want, any time of the day.

As there are expectations, there are disappointments. The most common disappointment found in the international fast food chains are such issues of cleanliness and staff’s attitude. The reason that the disappointments are appeared is because the business could not reach up to the point where the customers expect. As mentioned as one of the expectation, “interest in correcting errors” attitude is required however, if there isn’t any or the staff is unfriendly, there will be a negative expectation. Even for cleanliness, if a staff cleans or sweeps when there are customers are still having their meal, it brings negative expectations as well.

Moving on to the last part of the question, the positive and negative expectations of the travel and tour company, the positive expectations by the customers are usually such things like quality and assurance, vehicle fleet and tour drivers and also quick response. Not to say that the previously mentioned expectations are not important however the major and top expectations could be such issues like accessibility on the net, great and reasonable prices, excellent services, flexibility and also local knowledge.

Accessibility, especially on the net, since most people book or gain knowledge about travel destiny through the net nowadays, is very necessary. It is because, so that customers can check out for the packages and price and if they are satisfied, they could straightly proceed to book for the tour. Great prices are concerned though it is under the concept of “you get what you paid for”, when it comes to travel and tour section. Prices should never let the customers down, and if it does, the organization or the business should take an action in order not to leave the customers with any dissatisfaction and negative expectations.

Excellent service is one of the expectations. They should provide efficient service for the customers and as much as they paid for. Such services are vehicle fleet or tour drivers. Services that make the customers’ holiday more enjoyable and comfortable. Flexibility is also requested for the organization to strive to meet the customers’ every request by tailoring the organization’s packages to suit their customers’ needs. And lastly, the customers expect the travel and tour company to have enough local knowledge and experience in order to be toured and leaded by a better travel and tour company.

The negative expectations of the customers toward the travel and tour company such as when it comes to not properly arrangements of accommodations or delay of any tour or even unfriendly service or tour by the tour guide. Or even when the tour is organized in a group of different people, there must be a good interaction as it is one of the responsibility of the tour guide. From the departure and to the arrival, the responsibility of anything happens between belongs to the tour guide which represent the travel and tour company itself. Therefore, the company and the employees in that company should try their best to satisfy their customers, which would automatically increase the company’s reputation as well as the profit.

Conclusion (Q2)

There are always different negative and positive expectations of the customers and different ways to overcome or satisfy the customers. However, the aim is the same; to satisfy the customers in order for the organization’s own benefit. Positive expectations should be assumed as much as possible and negative expectations should be appreciated as it is one of the ways for an improvement.

Conclusion (General)

To conclude this assignment questions, there are two conclusions made. One is about the 5 basic needs of a customer which are quality, service, action, price and appreciation. These 5 needs are the very basic needs of a customer, which are supposed to be maintained by each and everyone in the organization or business in order to keep their customers satisfied and to make them return. Therefore, even if the 5 needs are the very basic needs, they are one of the most important facts in the customer service.

Two, the conclusion base on the second question is about expectations and satisfactions.

Satisfaction comes together with positive expectations and dissatisfaction comes together with negative expectations. It is very important to keep up with customers’ expectations as the action that each employee or staff takes carries, concerns and represents the reputation of the business or the organization that they are, as well as the profit that the business get at the end of the day which could make the customer be one of the repeated customer.