Misaligned Customer Expectations

What if you could transform customer dissatisfaction into a golden opportunity for building trust and loyalty? Join me, Jeannie Walters, on this episode of the Experience Action Podcast, where we explore the art of managing customer expectations and strategies for when reality doesn't quite meet those expectations. We'll discuss how acknowledging and empathizing with your customers can be a game-changer, offering practical communication techniques to bridge gaps and mitigate disappointment. Discover the importance of transparency and honesty, and learn how offering alternatives—even suggesting competitors—can surprisingly strengthen your customer relationships and build unparalleled trust.

Together, we can transform ideas into actionable strategies that elevate your customer experience. Subscribe now and let's embark on this journey to turn challenges into opportunities for excellence.

Resources Mentioned:
Experience Investigators Website -- experienceinvestigators.com

Want to ask a question? Visit askjeannie.vip to leave Jeannie a voicemail! (And don't forget to follow Jeannie on LinkedIn! www.linkedin.com/in/jeanniewalters/)

Episode Transcript

MC (00:00):
Experience Action.
Let's stop just talking aboutcustomer experience, employee
experience and the experience ofleaders.
Let's turn ideas into action.
Your host, jJeanne Walters, isan award-winning customer
experience expert, internationalkeynote speaker and founder of
Experience Investigators, astrategic consulting firm

(00:20):
helping companies increase salesand customer retention through
elevated customer experiences.
Ready set action.

Jeannie Walters (00:31):
Those pesky customer expectations.
How do we make sure that we candeliver?
But what happens if we can't?
That's what we're talking abouttoday on the Experience Action
Podcast.

Listener Question (00:45):
How do you handle a situation where your
customer expectations don'talign with what you can deliver?

Jeannie Walters (00:51):
Well, thank you so much for this question
because, really, when we aretalking about delivering for
customers with a positive,proactive, intentional customer
experience, we're really talkingabout delivering on
expectations.
Now, if we don't deliver onthose expectations, whatever
they are, we simply disappointthe customer.

(01:14):
It's really that simple.
So one of the most importantthings in the work that we do is
around making sure that theexpectations we're setting are
the right ones that we canactually deliver on in the real
world.
Now, when that doesn't happenfor a variety of reasons, we
have to own that part too.
So, when we find that what wecan deliver isn't aligned with

(01:39):
what a customer is expecting,it's easy to just kind of think
well, that's the way it is andmove on, and I've seen this too
often.
What I want you to do is thinkabout, first of all, how can we
acknowledge and simply empathizewith the customer, with what
they're going through?
Because really, it's criticalto acknowledge that maybe that

(02:00):
is what they thought and you canunderstand why that would be
disappointing.
You could even use phrases likeI understand why you are
looking for this or I see whythis is important to you.
Using phrases like that toreally empathize with somebody
in the moment can go a long way.
So the first thing to rememberis to acknowledge and empathize
with the customer.

(02:20):
We don't want to simply shrugthis off.
This is important and this issomething that, even if they
misread something ormisunderstood or just simply had
the wrong expectations, we cancertainly understand why that
would create disappointment.
Now, number two I want you toclarify the misalignment.
Look for ways that you can getvery specific about what that is

(02:41):
.
You could even ask for moreexplanation.
One of my favorite phrases isoh, tell me more about that, or
can you help me understand thata little bit more?
Let them clearly articulate whythat misalignment occurred.
You might hear something thatclearly means that we messed

(03:04):
something up.
We have to own that we have tosay, okay, that shouldn't have
happened.
I'm going to follow up on thisfor you.
When you ask for thatclarification, make sure you're
really listening to what arethey saying and which part do we
own or should we own?
And which part can you simplysay, wow, I'm not aware of how

(03:24):
that was communicated.
Can you help me understand?
Was there something that wascommunicated that led to that
expectation?
Now, they might not have thatexactly.
They might say your person saidthis or I read this somewhere,
and you can simply say, wow,that shouldn't have happened.
I'm really sorry that happened.
And then look for anything youcan do to really appease them in

(03:46):
that situation.
That could be simply I'm goingto look into this and get back
to you.
I'm going to find out what Ican do and I will call you back
in 24 hours.
Be sure you set clear timeexpectations and then live up to
those as well.
So you want to acknowledge andempathize.
You want to clarify themisalignment.
And then you want to betransparent.

(04:08):
You want to make sure that youare really being honest with
them and, let me say too,respectfully honest where you
say what you can and can't doand explain that.
So you want to be very carefulhere, because we don't want to
get defensive, we don't want tosay things like well, I don't
know why you would understandthat or I don't know why you

(04:29):
would think that.
That's not really fair to thecustomer.
So what we can do is simply say, all right, we might not be
able to deliver exactly likethat, but let me share what we
can provide.
Let me share why this approachworks for most customers.
You could even go into thingslike wow, it sounds like you

(04:52):
really need that by Tuesday andunfortunately, because of the
shipping delays that we'veexperienced, I cannot guarantee
that we will get that to you byTuesday.
Here's what we can do.
And then you can say we canrefund it, we can offer you an
alternative, or we can ship itand hope for the best, and then,
if it arrives on Wednesday,those are the expectations.

(05:14):
So really think about where canyou have a small win with the
customer, but be clear on whatyou can and can't do.
Don't overpromise here.
And then, of course, you dowant to offer those alternatives
.
Can you meet halfway, can youfind another product or service
or even refer a competitor.

(05:35):
Sometimes the biggest way tobuild trust is to simply say,
gosh, I'm very sorry, but we'renot able to deliver on that.
You may want to reach out toXYZ, or I can refer you to a
partner or an external resource.
Now you have to be reallyknowledgeable about that
competitor, about that partner.

(05:56):
So be careful, be cautiousabout when you do offer that as
an alternative.
But at the very least, we couldsay something like well, we
can't do this, but we couldpossibly do this.
By working with the customer,you're building that
relationship.
Remember your customerrelationships are just like any

(06:16):
other relationship.
They are built on trust.
And so, the more that we canbuild trust by saying, wow, I'm
sorry that happened.
Can you help me understand whythose expectations were set?
It sounds like we can do this,and by working together and
collaborating.
In fact, part of our CXINavigator framework is about

(06:39):
customer collaboration, becausethe more that we can help them
feel ownership over that, themore that they know that we're
working on their behalf.
That's how you build trust.
And then, of course, at the endof all this, you want to make
sure this doesn't happen again,if you can prevent it.
So, if you realize, by workingthrough a misalignment with a

(07:01):
customer, that you know whatsome of those marketing
materials make some promisesthat we can't keep.
Or we didn't proactively informour customers when we knew
there was going to be a shipmentdelay.
That gives you a great place tostart on how to improve the
experience, not just for thatcustomer but for every customer

(07:26):
moving forward.
So you want to learn from theseexperiences.
You want to dive in, do alittle root cause analysis and
if you identify that, then youcan bring that forward and say
we could do this better.
We can make sure that we don'thave this misalignment in the
future.
So a great question to ask iswhat happened?
And then follow that up withwhy, why, why, why the five whys
?
Now, once you start asking thosewhys, you may start identifying

(07:50):
things like wow, there's a gapin communication here.
Our supply chain folks didn'ttalk to our delivery people who
didn't talk to our customercommunications people, or maybe
some automation didn't work theway it should have.
This is why your work as acustomer experience leader is so
important.
We bring the lens of thecustomer to everything we do.

(08:12):
That means that when peoplethink that these processes are
working great, they might not beseeing what's actually
happening in the cohesivecustomer journey.
So, yes, your supply chaininventory might look like it's
going fine because, yeah, therewas a delay here.
There wasn't as much as weexpected there, but overall

(08:33):
we're making our shipments.
But if we're overall making ourshipments but that one customer
isn't getting theirs, we mightnot be connecting those dots in
that role, but as a customerexperience leader, we can bring
this all together.
We can show people how this allfits together and how it
impacts the overall customerexperience.
So make sure that as youidentify these challenges in the

(08:55):
moment, that it's not just aone and done.
That you don't just look at itand think, well gosh, that silly
customer, they didn't get it,right.
They just didn't understand theexpectations.
No, there's usually a reasonand if it is because maybe the
customer misinterpretedsomething, you can look at what
was it that they misinterpretedand why?
Was it because we didn't say itin the right place in the

(09:18):
journey?
Is it because they didn't getthe right type of alert?
We wanna make sure we're reallythinking through things so that,
as we continue to look at thecustomer journey and understand
what our customers are sharingwith us, that we can continue to
improve and build on it.
So gather feedback, look forpatterns all of the things that

(09:39):
you usually do, but don't forgetabout these individual customer
experiences.
They can help us reallyunderstand where can we do a
little bit better, not just onbehalf of that one individual
customer, but on behalf of allour customers.
And, at the end of the day, ifwe can make those improvements,

(10:01):
if we can make things easier,more seamless, more consistent
for every customer as they movethrough the journey, we know
that will lead to betteroutcomes and business results.
So, when in doubt, think abouthow will this have a greater
impact on our organization?
That's what gives you thelanguage to ask for the
resources needed to make thoseimprovements.

(10:21):
This was a great question.
I love hearing from you.
Please don't be shy.
Leave me a question, leave me acomment, and don't forget we're
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If you haven't, as the kids say, hit that subscribe button,
let's go ahead and do that too.
So for now, thank you foreverything you're doing and I

(10:43):
can't wait to talk to you againsoon.
Thanks, everybody! To learnmore about our strategic
approach to experience, checkout free resources at
experienceinvestigatorscom,where you can sign up for our
newsletter, our Year of CXprogram and more, and please

(11:03):
follow me, Jeannie Walters, onLinkedIn.