Customers' Cleaning Expectations Rarely Match Price Expectations

I used to teach a class entitled: “Managing Customer Service” and an associate suggested to retitle and refocus on the subject of “Managing Customer Expectations” which was a eureka moment for me at that stage in my life. We all have encountered the Customer Service Desk which seems to have a big NO as the lead even though when we purchased the product or service (or warranty) we were assured in glowing terms that if we were “dissatisfied for any reason simply return the…..”

Reality struck when the unsmiling customer service rep informed us that we had failed to dot an “i” or cross a “t” thereby abrogating the prior promises. After a few experiences like the preceding, many of us became jaded to the point of going for the lowest price and taking our chance that the item would perform as described. Does the preceding scenario sound familiar? It should since many Building Service Contractors before us have promised many things that only lasted until the contract was signed; then reality set in. Such acts can hurt our chances of gaining credibility. 

I heard of one BSC that negotiated several contracts with prices that were hard to believe. The prospects, who should have known better, were not very happy when after a few months the BSC failed to pay their staff or show up one Monday morning. They had obviously underestimated the cost of the promises and simply walked away once they started losing money.

Our opportunity was that when we presented our costs (with documentation based on industry time standards) as the prospect noted that we were substantially higher than the failed company. Our response was if they could have performed all these tasks for this price they would never have walked away from the contract. Enough said. 

Sometimes customer expectations can be unrealistic if not clearly broken out in the contract specs prior to starting the job. Your comments and questions are always welcome. I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, keep it clean…

Mickey Crowe has been involved in the industry for over 35 years. He is a trainer, speaker and consultant. You can reach Mickey at 678.314.2171 or CTCG50@comcast.net.