Category Archives: Service Gaps

Lance Armstrong, Market Communication Gap, matt Corby, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Service Gaps, skepticism, Subway

Will Lance Armstrong’s Admissions Heighten Consumer Skepticism

Watching the Lance Armstrong interview I couldn’t help but think of the classic saying, “If it seems too good to be true it probably is.” This also caused me to consider how often ‘sayings’ seem to be accurate. Maybe it is because sayings arise from collective wisdom over time.

It is this idea of collective wisdom that then caused me to wonder about the ripple effect of Lance’s admissions. Will consumers become more skeptical of corporate behaviours?

This morning I noticed this article in The Age Newspaper, Subway, where a foot is a step back.

Matt Corby’s 11 inch ‘footlong’ sub. Photo: Facebook

Perth teenager Matt Corby posted a photo of his ‘foot-long’ sub on Subway’s Facebook page. It clearly indicated that his sub was only 11 inches long.  That’s 91.67% of a 12 inch sub. Imagine if you only received 91.67% of most things that you buy. Collective wisdom suggests to me that most people expect a Footlong Sub to be pretty close to 12 inches long. I don’t know about you but I’ve always thought that a foot long sub meant that it was supposed to be 12 inches long. Given they also have a ‘Six Inch Sub’ this perception is reinforced by other items on their menu.

I quite like Subway and this article isn’t about them. Rather, it’s about their response and what it represents to consumers. This is what Subway Australia posted on Facebook in response to Matt’s photo.

“With regards to the size of the bread and calling it a footlong, ‘Subway Footlong’ is a registered trademark as a descriptive name for the sub sold in Subway restaurants and not intended to be a measurement of length.”


Hopefully Matt’s sub is an aberration. But what if it isn’t? Personally I’m not going to pull out a measuring tape every time I buy a sub and if I really think about it, ‘nearly 12 inches’ would be good enough. But 11 inches is not good enough. Skeptically do you think that people will be posting images of 13 inch subs? I don’t think so. (Hmmm some skepticism slipping in there…)
Which brings me to my point. The Lance Armstrong admission is going to make consumers more skeptical of what they are being sold and the intentions of organisations. It will also make them more skeptical of the responses that organisations provide, such as the response provided above from Subway. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to work out that if your product is only 91.67% of the size that the market expects, but you are ‘getting away‘ with selling it at the smaller size then your cost savings go straight to your bottom line. People aren’t stupid. They can work these things out and social media makes it easy for them to provide this feedback.
The problem that Subway may have is that their Footlong Subs may in fact only be 11 inches long. In other words, over time their system may have been changed so that is what they produce. Despite the name being ‘Footlong’ they may have created a system that creates a gap between what they are marketing and what they are actually saying. These decisions may have been made a long time ago with the benefits of those changes going to Subway and not their consumers. No doubt many organisations have made similar decisions – but these decision create a Market Communication Gap. What the market perceives they are going to get is different to what it actually gets. Ultimately this creates poor service.

What are your thoughts? Will Lance Armstrong’s admissions drive consumer skepticism and what does this mean for organisations?
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Conversation, Customer Service, Leaders, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Service Gaps

Gap 4 – The Market – Communication Gap

If you say that you will respond to online customer feedback within 24 hours and you consistently take 48 hours to do it, then you have created a Market – Communication Gap.

The local barber who cuts my hair has two signs out the front of his barber’s shop. One sign says that the shop will be open at 8:30am. The second says 8:45am. The barber is rarely there before 9am. He has no idea how many people have looked in his window when he wasn’t open when he advertised that he would be.

My expectations are consistently not being met. One day a new barber/hairdresser will move into an empty shop in the shopping strip. What do you think I will do?

What Market – Communication Gaps are you creating?

Why not use this article to catalyse Conversations That Matter® within your team or organisation.

Copyright Gary Ryan 2011

Quote from the barber

Sorry mate. I know that I said sorry the last couple of times but my car broke down and I had to wait for my wife. Sorry mate.
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
Employability, Leadership, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Service Gaps

What is your service-quality gap?

Gap 2

It is one thing to be able to understand the expectations of those you serve. A gap can emerge if your translation of those expectations into service standards is inaccurate.

Service standards are effectively the systems and processes that you put into place to ensure that you can consistently meet the expectations of your customers. This is very easy to get wrong and requires a high understanding of the expectations of your customers, as well as a high level of understanding of how your organisations works if you are to minimise this gap. Hiring the right people with the passion to serve, and supporting them with appropriate service standards is critical for minimising this gap.
Copyright Gary Ryan 2011
Research participant
The members said that they wanted the gymnasium to open at 6am. So I employed the staff to start their shift at 6am. The members were still not happy. I was confused. When I asked them again why they weren’t happy they said, “We told you that we wanted the gym open at 6am, not ‘opening’ at 6am. There’s a difference!” Finally I understood. The staff would be paid to start at 5:45am so that the gym would be truly open as had been requested. I had been wrong. I had misinterpreted the expectations of the members.
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com
High Performance, Leaders, OTM Service Strategy, Service Excellence, Service Gaps

How large is your Management Perception Gap?

This is a post in a five part series, each of which will explain one of the gaps.
Over two decades ago Parasuraman, Weithaml & Berry (1988) introduced the concept of Service Gaps. Each gap contributes to an organisation’s capacity to meet or exceed the expectations of its customers and the cumulative effect of the gaps have the potential for significant performance failures. The gaps are as relevant today as they have ever been.
The first gap is known as the Management Perception Gap.

Gap 1 The Management Perception Gap

A gap can exist between managements understanding of customer expectations and the actual expectations of customers. If management get this wrong, everything else they do will be wrong and the service gap is likely to grow exponentially. Organisations must do everything in their power to minimise the chances that Gap 1 exists. When was the last time your checked your perception of your customer’s expectations against reality?

Copyright Gary Ryan 2011
“Service. If you haven’t got it, don’t even bother getting out of bed if you want to be a senior leader.  It’s such an entry level requirement it isn’t even worth talking about it.”  (Jack Welch, ex GE CEO)
Gary Ryan enables individuals, teams and organisations to matter.
Visit Gary at http://garyryans.com