The ultimate goal of customer service is to meet - or exceed - customer expectations.

But how can we know what every customer wants when expectations vary from customer to customer? We could ask customers, individually or as a group, what they want. But it’s usually less expensive to anticipate what your customers want. After all, they probably have better things to do than educate you in the basics of customer service. Here are five assumptions you can make about your customer’s quality expectations.

1. They Want it Now. Customers’ time is precious; they don’t want to waste it by having to wait. After all, their needs exist now, and the culture we live in seldom supports the virtues of delayed gratification. Some customers might actually incur a cost for each hour or day that your service or product is delayed. Even customers who don’t lose money may be inconvenienced if you fail to respond quickly.

2. They Want Value. We are a nation of bargain hunters. However, with sophisticated customers, total cost is what they want to minimize, not just the purchase price. They don’t want to pay a very low price initially for products that end up costing them dearly because of constant repairs. In the same way, they won’t select inexpensive services that, dollar for dollar, don’t deliver the same value as higher priced - but higher valued - services.

3. They Want It Right. Customers expect that your products will perform as promised and that your services will have the result you predict. That’s their right. And they want quality, which means, at the very least, reliability and functionality. They count on you to stand behind your guarantees. Flawed products and services are never acceptable, no matter how quickly delivered or cheap the price.

4. They Want Convenience. Customers don’t want to have to jump through hoops to get your product or service. They’re not happy about filling out long forms, don’t appreciate being bounced around from one employee to another, would rather not have to travel across town, and they can’t afford to earn a Ph.D. just to use your product or service effectively. It’s easier than you think to make it easy for your customers. (Sometimes this just means doing less, rather than more.)

5. They Want It Their Way. Many customers today are willing to pay a little more to receive better attention and more personalized service. They appreciate the self-esteem strokes they get when someone simply remembers their name. They enjoy being able to assert minor changes in something being made for them. They’ll often pay more for something if they can avoid any inconvenience in acquiring it. Customers are individuals, so what works for one may not work for another. Your products or services are not personalized if they don’t address their need for individuality. So be prepared to offer choices.

Good customer service is meeting - or exceeding - customer expectations. It’s usually more cost effective to anticipate what your customers want, and it’s a great way to earn and maintain customer loyalty. You can anticipate your customer’s quality expectations by recognizing that they want everything immediately at a good value, correctly, conveniently and as customized as possible. Not anticipating these needs can cause them to go looking for a new vendor, which can be the most costly end result of all.