Expectations are foundational to relationships, and meeting or exceeding one’s expectation goes a long way in building trust and long lasting relationships. I wanted to share my thoughts on tackling differences in perceptions.
To perceive is to understand – Perceptions are formed based on how effectively we communicate, understand expectations, and how close we get to meeting them. We try to evaluate and validate perceptions of others through self-evaluation, but there are times we cannot understand why the other person understands your actions and results differently. Many a times, we believe that the reality is what we see it as it is. But we fail to recognize that we too are forming a perception about the situation or the person.
Customer satisfaction is one of the complex things to understand and manage. Because it involves understanding people of varied backgrounds, culture and personality, and in very short spans of time. So, when it comes to managing customer satisfaction, I have found that applying the following rules go a long way in resolving the gaps in understanding:
First, communication is the heartbeat to keep relationships alive, and communicating becomes even more critical, when you don’t meet expectations. So, the first step is to keep your communication active, to avoid any differences in perceptions.
Second, believe that perception is reality! This means you take things as your customers see it, than what you may find is happening with you or your organization.
Once you stick to the above rules and act on the things as they are perceived by your customers, it takes away so many complex factors like- culture, ego, experience and personality. And, it takes you closer to achieving your customer satisfaction goals.