Great (Unmet) Expectations

“I’ve never seen such bad customer service in my life,” declared one financial consumer frustrated during the recent merger of a large bank. His reaction to the situation – and to the halfhearted efforts of the bank to resolve it – went from a sidewalk protest at his local branch to filing a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

This customer’s readiness to take action in response to substandard service reflects a trend most frontline retail workers could tell you about: a rise in customer anger.

(I’m not going to tell you which bank it was – but you’re welcome to guess.)

It seems like people these days are carrying around, just below the surface, a pool of simmering anger, just waiting for a provocation to trigger an eruption. From irate airline passengers to “hangry” restaurant patrons given the wrong order, we see more examples every day of customer service gone bad. What is causing customers to so quickly give in to their tempers?

Frustration comes from unmet expectations.?For consumers, satisfaction (the opposite of frustration) results when the service or product delivered meets or exceeds their expectations. So when there is a gap between the expectation and the reality of service delivery, you can either improve performance or lower expectations. But in many cases today, expectations have reached unprecedented levels, and empowered consumers won’t willingly scale them back!

Some suggest that pandemic-related disruptions revealed that consumers’ expectations were not realistic. Before the pandemic, people had gotten used to the idea that you could get whatever you wanted, the moment you wanted it. Supply chains were not an issue; store shelves were always fully stocked. COVID changed that reality, at the same time as it reinforced and accelerated services like Amazon and Door Dash that make personalized, to-your-door catering the standard in consumer fulfillment.

If we have not adjusted our expectations, the gap between them and what is actually being delivered is a catalyst for intolerance, rudeness, or outright violence. No wonder workers are abandoning the front lines! It’s hard to keep the maxim that “the customer is always right” in mind when you’re being bombarded from all sides. Customer expectations may not be within your control anymore, thanks to the Amazons of the world. So your success depends on ensuring that your frontline performance is delivering on your customers’ expectations – because if?you?don’t meet them, there’s no shortage of competitors promising?they?will!

Knowing the difference between the expectation and the actual execution is where you lose or gain control.

With so many factors working to?escalate?the frustration – what is acting to?defuse?it?

The best way to manage a potentially volatile customer encounter is to prevent it from becoming one in the first place. An approach to service quality based on a time-tested methodology like SERVQUAL can identify what the customer expects and what they actually experience with you during every human (or digital-to-human) moment you deliver.?

Think with me right now, for just a moment.?How many human experiences are occurring or have occurred in the time it took you to read this post??Then, how many of those experiences resulted in a customer being well-pleased with the bank or credit union’s execution of the experience delivered??You don’t know, do you??But you?need to know?because?knowing the difference between the?expectation?and the actual?execution?is where you lose or gain control.

Gaining control starts with knowing your customers and ends with using that knowledge to inform your front line coaching. When your customer-facing employees learn, practice, and master best-in-class service behaviors, they gain the skills to deliver service that goes a long way to fulfilling your customers’ expectations.?That puts you back in control, working?with?your customers rather than bracing for the next eruption.

As Founder, President, and CEO of Support EXP, I have helped financial institutions deliver a differentiating customer experience (CX) by optimizing performance through data-driven CX intel.?Our 20+ years as researchers and innovators make us the premier provider of customer feedback solutions, actionable analytics, and expert guidance for the banking industry.

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