The approaches companies take to create Cooperative Advantage of accomplishing improved organizational performance on the one hand and superior customer value on the other require the prerequisite of their being a tightly coupled integration between Validation and Reinforcement of Trust and Social Exchange Behaviors and Voluntary Performance Behaviors. Where previous maturity models that have been defined (Hatch, Schultz, 2002) contribute to this dynamic including the work done is in continually looking at an organization for the potential of creating trustworthy experiences for customers. Every customer, at any specific point in time, is at a specific level of trust or mistrust with an organization. To the extent that an organization can earn the trust of its customers is the extent to which the velocity and flow of information through proposed Services Expectation Model is achieved. More critical than that, yet more long-term, is the ability to re-define organizational values based on what customers require an organization to be, and vice versa. In this sense the proposed Services Expectation Model needs to be reciprocal in fostering and nurturing trust within the organization of customers' expectations being accurate and attainable.
Also inherent in the nature and character of expectations in the ability of company cultures to consistently create and sustain intense brand loyalties. Apple has been very successful at tightly coupling their values with their customers, and creating in effect an ecosystem where values where one reinforces the other. Another example is Toyota and the trusted advisor status they have achieved in the auto industry. There are many more examples of this dynamic, where the proposed Services Expectation Model is illustrated in the relative distance or proximity and intimacy an organization is capable of achieving with its customers.
Validation and Reinforcement of Trust must be tightly coupled with Social Exchange and Voluntary Performance Behaviors to create equilibrium and balance throughout an organization. The ability to earn and keep trust defines the extent of a Cooperative Advantage overall that leads to the development of consistent organizational performance and the development of exceptional customer value over time. Trust becomes the catalyst of continual financial performance and growth, not price or the short-term focus on competitive tactics. From this perspective, customer loyalty earned though consistently exceeding expectations becomes the unique competitive advantage of any firm. This becomes particularly relevant in the area of hospitality firms where the development of a unique competitive advantage must emanate from the staff's ability to sense and respond to the unique requirements of customers and tailor their response to their specific needs. The agility and responsiveness of hospitality firms to sense and accurately respond to these unique requirements of customers in a service setting, once defined first as a process and then engrained into its culture, is critical for long-term competitive advantage.
Like Porter's Determinants of Competitive Advantage, the proposed analytical construct of the Services Expectation Model also illustrates the need to create localized competitive competence and strength first, and then scale globally specifically focusing on how to transform the ability to regularly exceed expectations as a competitive advantage.
This point is made apparent in the need for equilibrium in the model first, and the ever-growing requirement of transforming an organization from being trusted only a regional basis to deliver value into a global one. The proposed Services Expectation Model also shows how organizations need to create shared visions, make shared commitments and promises, and work with intensity to fulfill, in fact, exceed the many expectations they create. Only by making this dynamic a core strength, the ability to set and keep a series of visions, commitments, and promises, can an organization hope to remain viable and competitive in the years to come.
One of the more valuable aspects of expectations being continually met over time is the creation of a high perceived value of the product or service being delivered. When a given product or service attains this level of value, the credibility and integrity of the brand becomes part of the nature and characteristics of expectations consumers have. Specifically in the hospitality industry this is apparent in the expectations customers have when checking into a Four Seasons vs. A mid-tier hotel from Accor or Marriott for example. The ability of any services firm or organization to consistently meet expectations, leading to high levels of customer loyalty leads to value creation for the company's brand over time. Value creation is the accumulation of customer loyalty over time; it is in fact being...
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