Exceeding Customer Expectations
Customer expectations are continuing to rise. Customers have grown accustomed to tracking meal delivery orders in real time and benefitting from same day shipping. Friction arises when customers endure a gap between their expectations and their reality.
At the Missouri Department of Revenue, we acutely experienced the expectation gap during the individual income tax filing season. Many customers saw their individual income tax refund as their biggest payday of the year. Some would call the day after they filed their tax return. Many more waited. After enough time passed, the tidal wave of calls would come.
“Where’s my refund?” is the most frequently asked question in most state tax agency call centers. Experienced teammates at those agencies would recall, “People didn’t use to call so quickly.” That is a true statement that leads to two options: encourage your customers to be more patient; or, change your approaches to exceed customer expectations.
“Customer Expectations” encompasses a wide range of topics. Recently, the Federation of Tax Administrators asked state tax administrators to rank their impressions of their customers top needs. Three customer expectations led the pack: accuracy, clarity and turnaround time.
Accuracy - Customers want to know that their information is correct. In the private sector, customers want to know that their meal delivery order is correct: if I ordered pepperoni, I want pepperoni. In the public sector, customers want to receive their tax refund for the amount they submitted or have a detailed explanation as to why is has changed.
Clarity - Customers want to understand the information they’re receiving. In the private sector, customers want to see the status of their meal delivery order. Pizza shops often track the prepping, baking, quality checking and boxing of their products. In the public sector, customers want to understand the status of their tax refund, what actions still need to occur and what information they need to provide.
Turnaround Time - Customers want their information when they want it. In the private sector, customers want their meals delivered when they’re still hot and in the timeframe that was promised. In the public sector, customers will start calling when their turnaround time expectations are not met.
Segmenting customer expectations enables government agencies to prioritize their focus. In Missouri, we determined that “where’s my refund?” was primarily a question of turnaround time. We equipped ourselves to measure turnaround time so that our frontline teammates knew where we stood. We defined our success and measured our performance against those goals.
Exceeding customer expectations is not an insurmountable goal. It often requires a shift in approach. Dividing up the challenge, prioritizing focal points, defining success, measuring activity, and making adjustments provide a framework to help a team to level-up.
