How to manage customer expectations the best way possible

Customer experience is an essential metric behind the success of any business. 86% of buyers will pay more if given a better experience. Improving customer experience entails meeting or exceeding customer expectations of your product or service. 

Customer expectations mean what customers or someone needs or expects a product or service to do for them. It includes their beliefs, assumptions, and desires about a product or service.

It’s why someone prefers a product or service provider over another. So, you fail if you can’t solve a customer's needs based on your product or service's promise.

Expectations drive every purchase decision.

Excellent customer relations and meeting buyers’ expectations can grow your revenue by 4%-8% above your competitors. This huge metric stresses the need to always meet your users' expectations. 

Managing client expectations is an essential business element you shouldn’t overlook. You can attract new customers and get repeat sales and continual income if you meet your customers' and clients' expectations and needs. This article discusses the best strategies for managing your customer expectations starting today.

What are customer expectations?

All businesses, irrespective of size and industry, are structured to solve a need. Customer expectations are what customers expect from a company’s product or service to satisfy a need. 

For instance, for someone to buy a particular car brand or milk brand and not the other brands,they have a specific expectation of that product brand before committing money to it. The same applies to services. Customer expectation is the reason behind every purchase made by a customer. 

No expectation, no buy! 

Therefore, you must manage customer expectations metrics effectively to increase your business income and stay relevant in the marketplace. The following section discusses managing clients' or customers’ expectations and the possible outcomes.

Factors influencing customer expectations

 Various factors influence the expectations of different clients. Some of them include: 

1. Previous experiences.

2. Quality and content of marketing messages.

3. Word-of-mouth (referrals and testimonies from friends and family).

4. Industry norms.

5. Personal perception about a business.

6. Ways to Improve Customer Expectations

 These factors shape customer expectations about a business, its product,s or services.

 Now that you know the factors, let’s see how to build, improve, enhance and, manage customers’ expectations.

Customer expectations checklist

Here are a few things customers expect from a business

1. Getting high-quality products or services.

2. Prompt delivery of an order.

3. Quick response to requests, live chat, and email.

4. Better customer care service

5. Fulfillment of requested feature. 

6. Maintenance of quality

These are reasonable expectations that every business desirous of success should strive to meet. 

6 best strategies for managing customer expectations effectively

To effectively manage the expectations of your customers, do the following:

1. Understand your customers 

66% of consumers want brands to understand and meet their needs. Knowing your customer’s deep needs and desires makes customer expectations management easier because you can leverage what you know about them to serve them better. You may more precisely identify your customer's demands and goals when you know them better. 

Tip: To better understand your customer, check how they interact with and use your brand (product or service), how they interact with your employees during chats, and their feedback from surveys. 

Pros 

• It increases the response rate.

• It helps to understand customer needs. 

• It helps to improve customers’ compliance.  

2. Clear communication and transparency

Clear communication and transparency entail setting realistic and achievable expectations from the outset and communicating this to your customers on time.

Be transparent in your marketing messages, accurately and truthfully list your product descriptions, and tell your clients about potential limitations or delays.

By being upfront with buyers, your businesses will build trust and prevent misunderstandings that can lead to dissatisfaction. 

Pros:

• Builds trust and credibility with customers

• Leads to long-term relationships.

• Reduces the risk of negative surprises and complaints.

• Enhances customer satisfaction.

• Proof that a business is honest and has integrity. 

3. Manage expectations throughout the customer journey

Effectively managing clients' expectations throughout the customer journey is vital for customer satisfaction and long-term loyalty. Client journey management involves setting realistic expectations during sales, providing regular updates, and managing post-purchase support to keep buyers informed and engaged with your product or service. 

Pros: 

• Enhances customer experience

• Strengthens the overall business relationship.

• Reduces the likelihood of frustration.

• Reduces disappointment.

• Fosters loyalty.

• Repeat purchases

• Free referral through word-of-mouth recommendations. 

4. Offer personalized service 

81% of buyers will repurchase from a business with good service. But this can be better when the service is personalized to each user’s need or situation.

Personalization is one way of managing buyers' expectations.

Tailoring products or services to meet individual needs and preferences can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty.

You can personalize buyer service through the following:

●        data-driven insights,

●        client feedback, and

●        business research.

 Also, leverage customer information to provide relevant recommendations and solutions.

Pros:

• Shows a business values its customers as individuals.

• Makes clients feel cared for.

• Makes customers feel understood by the business.

• Improves buyer engagement.

• Enhances overall satisfaction.

• Increase brand loyalty.

• Drives customer advocacy.

• Personalized experiences create emotional connections with the brand. 

5. Set realistic delivery timelines 

Timely delivery of products and services is crucial for customer satisfaction. Hence, prioritize setting realistic delivery timelines and ensure your buyers receive their orders as expected. 

Consider the processing time, shipping, and potential delays when providing client delivery estimates. This will help you inform the client of the likely time to receive the product or service.

So, set a timely target you can meet to avoid dashing your clients’ expectations.

Pros: 

• Reduces customer frustration and impatience.

• Reduces operational costs.

• Enhances customer trust in the business.

• Improves the perception of the business's reliability.

• Minimizes the likelihood of returns.

• Reduces refund rates due to delayed deliveries 

6. Provide effective customer education

Educating customers about a product's features, benefits, and limitations is an effective customer expectations management strategy.

 You can educate your customers through 

• comprehensive product documentation

• FAQs

• tutorials, and

• customer support.

Through these avenues, you empower clients to make informed decisions and set realistic expectations by providing them with the necessary knowledge and resources. 

Pros:

• Empowers buyers to make informed choices.

• Reduces support requests and customer dissatisfaction.

• Enhances customer loyalty and advocacy.

7. Prioritize your customer needs 

Companies that excel at customer experience grow revenues 4%-8% above their market. 

One way to improve customer experience and manage customer expectations is to prioritize customer needs by being customer-centric and putting the requests and concerns of your customers first. Also, be truthful, honest, and open in your dealings with your customers to win and sustain their trust. 

Pros 

• It helps in building a more loyal customer base 

• Loyal customers end up referring others

• Your business gains more popularity for good customer service  

Tip: Employ various customer experience tools to help manage and optimize your service delivery. Some of these tools help automate certain customer service tasks and ensure that your clients are well attended to.

 8. Be versatile and flexible

To manage customer expectations for long-term results, you must stay nimble and adapt to changing needs. The more agile and adaptable your firm is, the more you’d be able to satisfy your customers’ expectations. This includes adaptability in pricing, payments, subscriptions, and customer support. 

People prefer businesses that can adapt and adjust to their peculiar needs. Meeting customers’ expectations won’t be an issue if your business satisfies this requirement. Adapting to your client’s needs shows them you have their best interests at heart, especially when giving unexpected favors and assistance. 

Tip: How to demonstrate adaptability to customers’ needs includes extending your support hours, offering flexible payment options, giving discounts, and introducing features that your customers request.  

Pros 

• Adjusting to customers’ needs increases trust.

• It helps to satisfy customers' desires.

• It helps in handling more challenges. 

9. Have an efficient customer care system

Customer expectations management relates significantly to an effective support system. 81% of buyers would make another purchase if the customer service is good. Nobody wants to waste time with an inefficient customer care representative. Bad customer care reps can cost your business a lot of money and time and increase churn. 

So, periodically train your customer care representatives to be professional and confident in handling customer issues. You can achieve this by scheduling periodic meetings with your reps, discussing solutions to their challenges, and training them on tools and techniques for providing better service.

Pros 

• Constant retraining of customer care representatives helps improve customer-business relationships.

• It helps improve the overall quality of your business.

Recommendation: Still struggling with customer communication? You shouldn’t. Workee provides the best tools to manage customer communication and meet clients’ expectations efficiently. Also, Workee can help you schedule and track meetings with your customers and process payments easily from a single dashboard. Sign-up now.

10. Leverage your customers’ feedback 

When business as usual gets disrupted, it's simple to cease paying attention to your consumers. Simply listening to what your customers say or need from your business can help you better understand how to help them and how their expectations are evolving. 

You can check your customer testimonials to see the feedback that will help you manage your customer expectations. Your consumers will always discuss your business online, especially on social media and online forum boards.You should listen to their feedback and leverage them to solve their needs.

To get valuable insights into your buyers’ needs and expectations, leverage: 

• surveys

• product reviews, and

• social media engagement 

You can use the information from your client’s reviews and feedback to improve your products and services and align them with client expectations. 

Pros

• Customer feedback is a cheap way to improve your product or service. 

• Customer feedback helps you to create a better customer experience. 

• It helps in measuring customer satisfaction.

Conclusion

93% of consumers prefer buying from businesses that provide exceptional customer service. Hence, effectively managing and fulfilling your customers' expectations can improve customer experience and grow your business. 

By providing efficient customer service, you can improve your reduce churn, increase customer retention rate, and improve your business revenue. Also, using Workee, you can easily track and manage your customers’ activities, know their needs, pain points, wants, and desires, and use this information to improve their expectations.