Excellence in customer service is the objective of all organisations wishing to be successful. However, there is often a gap between customer expectations and management perceptions of customer expectations. Organisations often fail to get close to their customers and correctly read their expectations.

Other reasons for customer service problems include:

• not listening to or collecting information from customers
• poor, or no, focus on the actual design of processes to turn identified customer needs into products and services
• gaps between what the organisation intends to produce for its customers and what its systems do actually produce
• gaps between what the system is intended to deliver for customers and what it actually does deliver
• cost constraints, or failure to set and meet realistic performance standards, which affect what the organisation can actually deliver
• poor staff attitudes, training levels and working materials
• gaps between what salespeople promise and the actual service or product quality

(Zeithaml, ParasuramanBerry 1990)

Comment, in approximately 2,000 words, on these statements.