The 6 Gaps Between Intentions And Reality

March 4, 2008 6 Comments

I just ran across an article on CRM Daily called “Customer Service’s Gap Between Intention and Reality” that starts as follows:

When it comes to looking after our customers, quite often there is a gap — a huge gap — between theory and practice.

My take: Let me start by saying that I don’t believe that there is a gap between theory and practice. That’s because there are, in fact, many gaps. I took a quick stab at highlighting 6 major customer experience gaps.

Why is this detail important? Because you can’t systematically solve customer issues until you understand exactly which gap(s) have the problem.

The bottom line: Don’t let your customer experience get lost in the gaps.

Filed under Compelling Brand Values, Customer Connectedness, Customer experience, customer service

About Bruce Temkin
I am a customer experience transformist, helping large organizations improve business results by changing how they deal with customers. As part of this focus, I examine strategy, marketing, interaction design, customer service, and leadership practices. I am also a fanatical student of business, so this blog provides an outlet for sharing insights from my ongoing educational journey. Simply put, I am passionate about spotting emerging best practices and helping companies master them. And, as many people know, I love to speak about these topics in almost any forum. My “title” is Managing Partner of the Temkin Group, a customer experience research and consulting firm that helps organizations become more customer-centric. Our goal is simple: accelerate the path to delighting customers. I am also the co-founder and chair of the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA.org), a non-profit organization dedicated to the success of CX professionals.

6 Responses to The 6 Gaps Between Intentions And Reality

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Mark Gregory says:

May 1, 2008 at 8:35 am

Bruce this is a useful expansion of the original point and a great summary for CEM managers to use in analysing their own customer experiences.

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Ola says:

May 4, 2008 at 8:52 am

Hello mr Temkin, i am a student whos investigating customer experience related issues and i must say that it is one of the best places i have found for this. better than several books i read. Your blog is very informative, clarifying, changes perspectives.. i must say Excellent in terms of knowledge and points of view i was forces to crash myself with! maybe thanks to rarity of conscise minds among cem professionals and educators;-) thanks a lot also for revealing small parts of forrester reasearch

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Bruce Temkin says:

May 4, 2008 at 2:03 pm

Ola: Thanks for your feedback. I am happy to hear that you’ve found my blog to be useful. As a student, you’re in a great position to learn new things. Hopefully when you go into the work world you’ll be able to help companies do a better job with customer experience!

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- Steve BArnes says:
  
  November 9, 2010 at 3:38 pm
  
  These gaps are very similar to those in the Servqual model, which I have always thought is one of the most usful models for thinking about service quality and customer experience.
  
  Reply