Match expectations

"It takes months, even years to find a
customer ... and only seconds to lose one."

Great companies remember that even target customers are moving targets—their expectations shift and evolve over time. Thus, service quality is not absolute, because it is determined by the customer, not by the service provider. And it varies from customer to customer. Consequently, excellent service quality firms are those that can adapt their products and services to meet and exceed changing customer expectations.

For example, an automobile manufacturer with an extremely high loyalty rate noticed that it was losing customers. They went to their defecting customers and asked why. The customers were happy with the quality of the cars, but they were beginning to have families and wanted bigger cars. Their expectations had changed. When the manufacturer responded by designing bigger cars, its efforts were rewarded by increased loyalty and sales.