Alessandra.com Workshop:

What Is Your Service Advantage?

part 2

Personal Positive Customer Experience

Think of a specific time where you, as the customer, experienced quality service.

Pick a situation where the service you received made you feel you definitely wanted to do business there again. In the space below, briefly describe what the service person did or said to create this positive impression on you.

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Common Elements of Quality Service

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If you share your personal experiences as customers, you'll probably find you all had different kinds of situations and service examples. So, what's the common element that holds all of these different experiences together? In every case, the customer had his or her expectations met or maybe even exceeded. Statements like "She did more than I expected," or "He went out of his way," or even "she went the extra mile." often are heard in these discussions.

So a useful way of defining quality service is meeting or exceeding the customer's expectations. After all isn't that how you define it as a customer? When you get treated the way you think you should be or better? When your expectations are met? Therefore, let's define quality service as meeting or exceeding the customer's expectations.

In thinking about customer expectations, it's important to consider the entire customer encounter. Every service encounter is made up of two levels -- the Performance level and the Personal level. Both are important to quality service. The Performance level is the bottom line. It's why the customer is interacting with you. Your prices, your policies, the quality of your products or services and the tasks you perform are some of the things that make up the Performance level.

The Personal level is how we get treated as a customer, as a person, while we're doing business.

Take a restaurant. Why do you go there? For food, of course. So the Performance level is the food -- is it hot, if it's suppose to be hot; is it cold, if it's suppose to be cold; does it taste right; is it a reasonable amount for the cost. And do you get it in a reasonable time after you order.

The Personal level is how you get treated by the servers while getting your food. Do they smile? Are they attentive to you needs? Do they listen and check back?

Both levels--Personal and Performance--are part of every interaction. When you ask for more coffee does the waiter roll his eyes and sigh? Or bring it with a smile? Either way you get your coffee--the Performance level, but what perception of service do you have?

It really takes both levels to create service excellence. To create a service advantage we must attend to both the Performance and the Personal level with customers. However, do they contribute equally in creating distinctive service? How much of what makes a positive customer experience--one that stands out, is the Performance level? And how much of what makes service stand out is Personal level?

Think back to your own personal service experience. How much of what made that experience stand out in your mind as quality service was the Performance level-the price, the policies, the features of the product or service, the tasks the person performed? And how much of what made the experience stand out was the Personal level-the way they treated you as a customer while taking care of your Performance level needs? What percentage would you give to each level, in terms of what made it a positive service experience for you?