Paper Example on Failing to Meet Customer Expectations: The Consequence of Poor Service

Introduction

A company can be fast, reliable, flexible, produce high-quality articles, and still provide poor service from the perspective of customers. The above is possible for a company that does not consider customer requirements in its processes. Clients often focus on the final products and on the ability to meet their expectations. Companies, therefore, should aim to align their operations to client needs such that the end-product solves a problem that customers face. Failure to meet customer expectations influences their perspective of the service, thus considering it poor. Therefore, organizations should work on both internal and external aspects of their product development to enhance acceptability in the market. Management should strive to strike the perfect balance between the two perspectives to ensure that the efficiency of the organization is not affected (Lumen, 2015). This balance is critical for the sustainability of the company's processes and products. It is pointless for a company to be fast in production if the products do not meet the needs of the consumers.

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Purchase Decision

The consumer perspective is influenced by various factors key among them the price and product quality. Phil Winters (2014), in his book, discusses understanding the customer. Winters (2014) advises that businesses need to take the customer perspective as the first step in this process. The consumer perspective is understood through having an outside-in look at the business. From this standpoint, companies get to see things from the customers' view. The decision-making process that influences purchase comprises five main steps. These steps are; problem identification, research, evaluation of options, purchase, and then post purchase sentiments. These elements make the process of taking the customer perspective rigorous. However, it provides essential information that is needed to help the company succeed. Consumer choices are based on a complex matrix of processes that go into the assessment of a product. However, the decision-making process indicates that the purchase of a product is not the ultimate endorsement of a product since it is followed by feedback (ProfessionalAcademy, 2017).

Consumer Demands

Customers desire certain products or services to obtain specific benefits that could be functional or emotional. This desire is not always necessary; however, it is the wish of the consumer. If satisfied, a customer tends to demonstrate a continued demand for a product, thus helping a company achieve consumer retention. An article on marketing by Lumen (2015) describes demand as the desire, willingness, and ability to pay by consumers for a particular product or service. The demand economic principle helps firms to survive in the market by having goods or services that are desirable by consumers. This desire develops through the processing of information by consumers in various forms. The information is acquired through exposure to a stimulus, followed by the consumer's attention and assigning value to it, and then using the meaning retention to later to solve a problem in the future. According to Lumen (2015), organizations should integrate customer focus into corporate strategy such that it can be used to predict the future demands of consumers.

Customer Satisfaction

Although a factory could be fast, reliable, flexible, and produce high-quality articles, it can provide poor services in the view of consumers. The processes of a company that do not satisfy consumer demand would result in poor feedback from consumers. An assessment of various types of consumer dissatisfaction by John Spacey (2018) lists expectations as one of the reasons for dissatisfaction. Customers go for a product or service with a particular expectation. However, when the product or service fails to meet the expectation, the consumer ends up dissatisfied. Another cause of dissatisfaction is issues in the usability of a product. Despite the efficiency in production, consumers might experience challenges using a product, thus causing a negative post-purchase behavior. Pricing could also influence the perspective of the customers. Regardless of the effort put in place to ensure quality and timely production, if the price of a product or service does not align with the expectation of the consumers, it results in negative feedback. Such a case is typical in monopolies that tend to fluctuate the prices in a market where consumers lack alternatives (Spacey, 2018).

Conclusion

In conclusion, firms need to leverage consumer perspective as a tool to formulate a corporate strategy. Organizational processes that do not consider the needs of the target consumer would result in poor post-purchase behavior. Since customer retention is a significant achievement for organizations, it is vital that managers strive to attain consumer satisfaction. Also, feedback is also crucial for companies seeking to expand their customer base. Therefore, these organizations need to build a strong client network that is based on referrals. An ideal product should elicit positive feedback from consumers, thus attracting other customers with similar needs. Since markets are driven by demand, firms should take an outside-in perspective while streamlining internal processes to align with the desires of consumers. Once an organization captures the needs of consumers, its products and services seek to solve the problems that these customers face, thus generating sustained demand.

References

Lumen. (2015, July 3). Introduction to Marketing. Retrieved from Lume: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-marketing/chapter/introduction-to-marketing/

ProfessionalAcademy (2017, January 12). Marketing Theories - Explaining The Consumer Decision Making Process. Retrieved from Professional Academy: https://www.professionalacademy.com/blogs-and-advice/marketing-theories---explaining-the-consumer-decision-making-process

Spacey, J. (2018, January 15). 11 Types of Customer Dissatisfaction. Retrieved from Simplicable: https://simplicable.com/new/customer-dissatisfaction

Winters, P. (2014). Customer Impact Agenda: Doing Business from the Customer's Perspective. Abingdon on Thames: Routledge.