For the past few years, I have observed that more & more customers are complaining "Service quality of our suppliers has to improve drastically'. Whereas the suppliers respond by stating "Our service is the best in the industry". I have come across this situation for all three type of organizations, providing either pure 'product' or only service or mix of product & service as their customer offering.

Although an organization can claim to be a 100% 'product' provider, there is always an element of service. In fact in the present competitive market situation with ever rising customer expectations', no organization can ignore 'service'. In fact wrapping 'service' element around the 'tangible product' will improve profitability & customer loyalty .

On digging deeper & asking 'critical questions', I find four fundamental areas of misunderstanding between the organization & its customers. They are;

1. Customer expectation & organizations' understanding of those expectations.

2. Organization's understanding & the standards set by the organization.

3. Standards set by the organization & its actual delivery of the service.

4. Actual delivery of the service & the implicit/explicit promise made during external communication (Offer letter / advt / sales presentation etc).

The gap of expectations resulting from the above 4 stages is the overall gap organization needs to address.

Managing customer expectations, especially with growing competition & customer needs, is one the critical issue organizations' are facing today. Customer compares the service received with the what was expected, while arriving at perception of satisfaction. It is experienced that at least every 6 months organization need to relook at their service standards.

As products (& pricing ) become similar between the competitors, it's only the service & quality of service that makes the difference.