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What Factors Affect Customer Satisfaction in the Service Industry?
Some factors that affect customer satisfaction in the service industry are speed of service, quality of service, and the cleanliness of the place of business. Customers often want a service performed quickly, so slowness usually leads to poor satisfaction ratings. The quality of the service matters too, because customers are not happy when treated rudely or in a rushed manner. Cleanliness is not just something typically required by law; appearance is important to a lot of customers. In addition, the ease of communication can greatly affect a customer’s overall experience with a business.
When a customer decides that he wants a service, he usually wants it performed as soon as possible. If he has to wait longer than originally expected, his experience can be negatively effected. While customers are usually more interested that the service be completed at a high quality than quickly, speed of service is an important aspect of customer satisfaction.
It may seem obvious that customers want services performed correctly and with a very high quality, and that they will not be satisfied when service is bad, but the importance of this is rarely overstated. Most industries include a number of different service providers, and customers will often switch to a different one if they experience bad or mediocre service. Although other factors influence customer satisfaction in the service industry, it is hard to find any that are more important than whether a job was completed properly.
Another factor that contributes to customer satisfaction is how well a service-oriented business presents itself. For instance, if a customer goes to a restaurant and is greeted by dirty floors and unkempt employees, it might not matter how good the food tastes. A bad appearance can lead the customer to expect poor service, leading to low satisfaction, even if the service was actually performed adequately. Likewise, a positive appearance can push customer satisfaction over the top or help turn a mediocre service experience into a good one.
How easily a customer can communicate and relate with the members of the service provider can also influence his or her overall satisfaction. When a name and a face are attached to a business, many customers naturally feel more connected to that provider. Furthermore, if a customer can relate to the employees performing a service for him or her, that customer is more likely to feel positive about the experience.
Discussion Comments
As a customer, the relationship between cost and quality is very important to me. I want to feel like I am getting a value for a quality service. I don't want to patronize the cheapest place or the most expensive place, I want to feel like I am going to the most sensible place. It is up to the service provider to create that feeling in me.
Take a dry cleaners for instance. A guy brings his shirts in every week and he wants to know that he will be able to pick them up at the same time he always has and that they will be uniformly pressed and starched. He pays you and goes home and doesn't think about his dry cleaning.
But if one day there is a shirt that was not pressed or was ripped, the whole routine gets interrupted and the guy starts to look for a new dry cleaner. You have to be consistent to keep the customer.
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