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Keywords
Service quality, Quality management, Professional services
Abstract
This article is based on an empirical study and describes an approach for managing customer expectations to achieve long-term quality and customer satisfaction in professional services. Professional services are somewhat different from other types of services, and often so are customer expectations. This article describes three types of expectations typical in the professional services context: fuzzy, implicit, and unrealistic. These types of expectations may represent a dangerous pitfall for long-- lasting customer satisfaction. Managing expectations is important since service quality and satisfaction result from how well the actual service performance, in other words the service process and outcome, matches the expectations. Much can be done to achieve long-lasting satisfaction with sophisticated expectations management. This article suggests that making fuzzy expectations precise, implicit expectations explicit, and unrealistic expectations realistic, facilitates long-term quality and customer satisfaction. The expectations-management approach introduced in this article is particularly important when the goal is to create long-term customer relationships.
Introduction
The theory of disconfirmation has been used to explain the formation of customer perceived service quality and satisfaction. According to this theory, service quality and satisfaction result from how well the actual service performance, in other words the service process and outcome, matches the customer's expectations. Thus, expectations and their management are of great significance to perceived service quality and satisfaction. The idea of disconfirmation has its roots in Helson's (1948; 1964) adaptation-- level theory, which suggests that states of satisfaction/dissatisfaction result from a comparison between one's perception of product performance and one's expectation level (see also Oliver and Linda, 1981). Several other studies have similarly described the basic mechanism behind the formation of satisfaction (Oliver, 1981; Oliver and Bearden, 1985; Oliver and DeSarbo, 1988; Swan and Martin, 1981; Swan and Trawick, 1981). According to widely accepted opinion in service research, customer perceived service quality results from how well customer expectations match actual experiences of the service (see e.g. Gronroos, 1982; Parasuraman et al., 1988; Gummesson, 1991a).
This article first describes the nature of fuzzy, implicit, and unrealistic expectations. It then explains how systematic management of these expectations increases the likelihood of achieving long-lasting customer satisfaction. Next, it suggests a model which combines the different types of expectations and...