Fulfilling Assumed Requirements Doesn't Build Loyalty; Here's What Will

Praveen Gupta’s book “Stat Free Six Sigma” (a process improvement method that can be used by any type of business to streamline processes and improve customer service) points out some concepts regarding customer expectations and customer loyalty that apply to every business in Montgomery County (and everywhere else, for that matter) trying to figure out how to compete in today’s tough marketplace.


I’ll paraphrase here but first Gupta demonstrates three categories of customer expectations developed by a quality guru named Noritaki Kano.

• Unspoken/Assumed Requirements: Requirements assumed to be present in a given product or service. For example, when we stay in a hotel, we assume there will be towels in the bathroom and a bed in the room.

• Spoken Customer Requirements: Requirements asked for or specified by the customer. At the same hotel, we might ask for extra pillows or for laundry service, expecting those services to be available.

• Unspoken Customer Desires: These are the “requirements” we don’t expect until we’re surprised by them while interacting with the product or service—what we “love to have” that is an unexpected and pleasant surprise. For most of us, returning to our hotel room after dinner finding the bed covers turned back with mints on the pillows would be a pleasant the unexpected surprise.

Fulfilling the Unspoken/Assumed Requirements does not improve customer satisfaction, but not fulfilling them may (will) lead to upset customers.

Meeting Spoken Customer Requirements does satisfy the customer but does not necessarily earn great customer loyalty.

Delivering Unspoken Customer Desires, however, excites customers to the point they are willing to pay a premium and/or spread the word to potential customers along with earning great loyalty and more repeat business.

Within the last couple of months, I’ve experienced fulfillment of my customer expectations in all three categories. I remember and will speak of here, examples from the first and third categories. I won’t mention fulfillment in the middle category and that’s the point. My expectations were met, but without anything memorable about the experience, I probably won’t remember to tell anyone.

I attended a meeting of about twenty people recently for which lunch was provided by a barbeque restaurant and catering service. We ordered salad and two kinds of meat with cookies for desert. When the caterer’s employee arrived he had no barbeque sauce. When we asked about the shortage, he said “It wasn’t checked off on the order sheet.” The “salad” was, in reality a tray of shredded iceberg lettuce with one slice of tomato on top. The cookies could have been poured from a bag of “Chips Ahoy” and we wouldn’t have known the difference. The employee returned to the restaurant and brought back the barbeque sauce. The meat happened to be really good, but our expectations for a real salad and barbeque sauce from a barbeque caterer were not met. The cookies were marginal. Would I hire the caterer again? Probably not. Even though the meat was really good, I just can’t believe anyone would really pass off a tray of shredded lettuce as salad and not bring barbeque sauce with a barbeque meal.

I attended an awards banquet the other night where a fine meal of prime rib was served. When those at my table asked for some horseradish, the caterer’s employee said “I don’t think we brought any.” Although this wasn’t quite the same as not bringing barbeque sauce with a barbeque meal, horseradish is a very traditional condiment for prime rib. Chances are out of 300 people, many would have enjoyed horseradish with their prime rib. This was another case of Assumed Requirements not being met.

Finally, in two out of two of the last visits to my favorite coffee shop, I had to go to the counter and ask for half and half. Maybe I’m just too picky, but I believe most people would agree that half and half is a standard. One should never expect to have to ask for half and half.

All of these things, while minor on the surface, bring to question the basic ability of each business to have systems in place to fulfill even Assumed requirements, let alone Spoken or Unspoken requirements or desires.

During the same time period, I’ve had one shining example of an Unspoken Customer Desire. Since it’s a positive example of the way business should be done, I’ll name names on this one. I asked for a quote from Liebert Brothers Electric of Coffeyville to dig a trench across my driveway, bury an electric cable and install an exterior receptacle that would allow me to leave my camper connected to the electric supply while parked. I have used Liebert Brothers before and know that they arrive on time on the agreed upon date. (While the expectation of a contractor to arrive on time on the agreed upon day is Assumed, in today’s world of contractors, that kind of punctuality has become an Unspoken Customer Desire.)

The crew did arrive on time and the ditching machine and operator (rented from another contractor) started to dig the forty foot trench from the garage to the camper parking space. Ten feet in, the trouble began—big rock under the surface. The trench operator went to the other end and started back toward the garage—another big rock. He was able to grind through one, but another—the size of my pick up cab—wouldn’t give so we went around it. The trencher and operator were there three or four hours instead of the one hour that was quoted.

The bill arrived; I left it unopened for a couple of days, not wanting to see it with all the extra trenching costs thrown in. Imagine my surprise when I opened it and found that it was for the quoted amount. I called Lieberts and said “This can’t be right. There’s no way this is enough to cover the extra cost you incurred.” A little surprised, she said she would check into it and call me back. (I don’t think they are used to customers pointing out that a bill is too small. ) She did call back and said “That’s the way we do it. We quoted you that amount and we stick with our quotes.” For me, that was Unspoken Customer Desire; unexpected, that they would eat the cost of the extra trenching time. It certainly has strengthened my existing loyalty to call them whenever I need electrical work done. (This could explain why Lieberts have been in business for over ninety years in Coffeyville, Kansas.

There are plenty customers today that are willing to be loyal to businesses that consistently provide them with Unspoken Customer Desires. If you’re in business trying to figure out how to survive with all the competition coming from the Internet and the big box stores, start out by consistently meeting the Assumed and Spoken requirement of your customers. Then, use creative thinking and innovation to meet their Unspoken Customer desires. This will create a shopping experience that they can’t resist if they like it and can’t get it anywhere else.