Customer Centric: A term used to describe service providers and organizations that

put their customers first and spend time, effort, and money identifying and focusing on
the needs of current and potential customers. Efforts are focused on building long-term
relationships and customer loyalty rather than simply selling a product or service and
moving on to the next customer.
External Marketing: Marketing to the end users which involves pricing strategy,
promotional activities and all communication with customers and performed to capture
the attention of the market and arouse interest in the service.
Internal marketing: Marketing to the employees which involves training, motivational
and team work programs and all communication with employees. It is performed to
enable employees to perform the service effectively and keep up the promise made to
the customers.
Help Desk: Term used to describe a service provider trained and assigned to assist
customers with questions, problems, or suggestions.
Techno Etiquette in Banks: The use of telephones, cell phones, speakerphones, voice
mail, email and faxes has become a way of life in business. However, the rules of
etiquette have not always kept pace with the innovations of technology. Here, then, is a
primer on the dos and donts of techno-etiquette.
Internet Banking: Online banking (or Internet banking or E-banking) allows
customers of a financial institution to conduct financial transactions on a secure website
operated by the institution, which can be a retail or virtual bank, credit union or
building society.
Zone of Tolerance: customers have two levels of expectation: adequate - what they
find acceptable desired -what they hope to receive. The distance between the adequate
and the desired levels is known as the 'zone of tolerance'. The two levels may vary from
customer to customer and from one situation to another for the same customer.
Mystery Shopping: Mystery shopping or a mystery consumer is a tool used externally
by market research companies, watchdog organizations, or internally by companies
themselves to measure quality of service, or compliance with regulation, or to gather
specific information about products and services. The mystery consumer's specific
identity and purpose is generally not known by the establishment being evaluated.
Mystery shoppers perform specific tasks such as purchasing a product, asking
questions, registering complaints or behaving in a certain way, and then provide
detailed reports or feedback about their experiences.

Perceived quality: Consumer's opinion of a product's (or a brand's) ability to fulfill his
or her expectations. It may have little or nothing to do with the actual excellence of the
product, and is based on the firms (or brand's) current public image (see corporate
image), consumer's experience with the firm's other products, and the influence of the
opinion leaders, consumer's peer group, and others.
MIRC cheques: Magnetic Ink Character Recognition or MICR is a character
recognition technology adopted mainly by the banking industry to facilitate the
processing and to verify the legitimacy or originality of checks. The process was
demonstrated to the American Bankers Association in July 1956, and it was almost
universally employed by 1963
Customer Costs: refers not only to the price of a product, but it also encompasses the
purchase costs, use costs and the post-use costs
Moments of Truth: In customer service, instance of contact or interaction between a
customer and a firm (through a product, sales force, or visit) that gives the customer an
opportunity to form (or change) an impression about the firm.
Customer contact center: A central point within an organization from which all
customer service contacts are managed via various forms of technology.
Customer defection: Customers often take their business to competitors when they feel
that their needs or wants are not met or if they encounter breakdown in customer
service or poor quality products.
Customer expectations: The perceptions that customers have when they contact an
organization or service provider about the kind and level and quality of products and
services they should receive.
Customer-focused organization: A company that spends energy and effort on
satisfying internal and external customers by first identifying customer needs, then
establishing policies, procedures, and management and reward systems to support
excellence in service delivery.
Customer-friendly systems: Refers to the processes in an organization that make
service seamless to customers by ensuring that things work properly and the customer is
satisfied.
Customer loyalty: Term used to describe the tendency of customers to return to a
product or organization regularly because of the service and satisfaction they receive.

Customer needs: Motivators or drivers that cause customers to seek out specific types
of products or services. These may be marketing-driven by advertising they have seen
or may tie directly to Dr. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Theory.
Customer relationship management (CRM): Concept of identifying customer needs:
understanding and influencing customer behavior through ongoing communication
strategies in an effort to acquire, retain, and satisfy the customer. The ultimate goal is
customer loyalty.
Customer relationships: The practice of building and maintaining ongoing friendships
with customers in an effort to make them feel comfortable with an organization and its
service providers and to enhance customer loyalty.
Customer retention: The ongoing effort by an organization to meet customer needs
and desires in an effort to build long-term relationships and keep them for life.
Customer satisfaction: The feeling of a person whose needs have been met by an
organization.
Customer service: The ability of knowledgeable, capable, and enthusiastic employees
to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a manner that
satisfies identified and unidentified needs and ultimately results in positive word-ofmouth publicity and return business.
Customer service environment: An environment made up of and influenced by
various elements of an organization. Examples are delivery systems, human resources,
service, products, and organizational culture.
Interpersonal relationship: Focuses on the need for service providers to build strong
bonds with customers.
Needs: Motivators or drivers that cause customers to seek out specific types of products
or services. These may be marketing-driven, based on advertising they have seen, or
may tie directly to Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory.
Platinum Rule: Term coined by speaker and author Tony Alessandra related to going
beyond the step of treating customers the way you want to be treated, to the next level
of treating them the way they would like to be treated.
Service delivery systems: The mechanisms or strategies used by an organization to
provide service to customers.
Relationship Marketing: A philosophy of doing business, a strategic orientation that
focuses on keeping and improving current customers, rather than on acquiring new
customers.

Transaction based marketing: Involves limited communications between buyers and

sellers and little or no ongoing relationship between the parties.
Life time value of a customer: Life time revenue and thus the profitability of the
customer to the organization.
Affinity Program: A marketing effort sponsored by an organization that solicits
responses from individuals who share common interest and activities.
Service: A type of economic activity that is intangible is not stored and does not result
in ownership. A service is consumed at the point of sale.
Target Market: The selection of a market that will be the most advantageous segment
in which to offer a product. In this instance a company has already developed a product
or service which it intends to sell prior to selecting the market versus choosing a market
segment prior to product development.
Customer Benefit: The real or perceived value that a customer experience or believes
he is receiving through interaction with a company. Benefits may include resolution of
a problem, achievement of a desired outcome or fulfillment of a need through a
purchase, a feeling of confidence following purchase; or satisfaction with post-purchase
service.
Customer value: The difference between what a customers gets from a product and
what he or she has to give in order to get it.
Customer experience: The total of all experiences the customer has with the business,
based on all interactions and thought about the business. It is an integral part of
customer relationship management. The overall experience reflects how the customer
feels about the company and its offering.
Customer expectation: The perceived value customers seek from the purchase of
goods and services. They include solid information, superior communication,
consulting, options and a seamless relationship. Achievement of these will increase
customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Interactive Marketing: The decisive moment of interaction between the front office
employees and customers.
Dynamic Expectation
CEM
Static Expectation: