A Guide To Customer Expectations Regarding Customer Service and Customer Experience In Various Industries and Niches
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In an article entitled Customer Service and Why We MUST Get More Find Grained In Our Discussions To Improve It – Five Guidelines it was suggested that we can’t treat customers as being all the same. The customers that patronize McDonald’s expect something different than those that visit very expensive restaurants. Confuse one with the other, or treat them as if they are the same, and you may annoy them, and worse, waste money and resources on things your customers do NOT want.
Below is a first draft of a chart that maps out some of the differences among customers, and their expectations, related to type of business. It would be great to do this based on good data, but we’ll have to make do.
The first column describes the type of business, while the second provides some additional information in terms of the “level” of business. The third column contains some key words to describe customer expectations in the particular category.
Business Niche | Characteristics/ Expectations | Keys |
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Restaurants – Fast Food |
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Restaurants – Luxury |
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Restaurants – Mid-Range |
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Hotels – High End – 4-5 Stars |
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Hotels – Lower End But Not Fleabag |
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Hotels – Mid-Level (Most chains EXCLUDING Motel 6’s type places) |
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Trades People – Short term Services Like Car Repair, Plumbers, Tow Trucks |
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Trades People – Longer term – Contractors, Builders, Lawn Care, House clearing |
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Retail – Convenience Stores |
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Retail – Big Box or Chains (Walmart, Zellers, Staples) |
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Local Retail – Small chains or one off retailers. |
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Personal Services – Hair dresser, personal shopper, personal trainer (multiple contacts over time) |
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Online Retail Businesses (e-commerce companies big and small e.g. amazon.com, Travelocity) |
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