By Carla Childers, Ph.D.   There is no doubt that service providers have faced exceptional challenges during the pandemic, but the damaging impact on consumers’ perceptions of service quality is not new. Customer satisfaction has been on the decline for over a decade in the United States. The pandemic has simply exacerbated the decline.   In simple terms, both customer satisfaction and service quality are based on consumer perceptions of their experiences versus their antecedent expectations. If a consumer’s expectations are confirmed, satisfaction is said to be achieved. Similarly, if a service is performed at the anticipated level, a consumer will perceive it to be of good quality. Thus, consumer expectations play a major role in determining service outcomes.   According to the national American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI), customer satisfaction is currently at its lowest level in 17 years. A variety of industries continue to struggle to deliver high quality service amid ongoing supply-chain issues, staff shortages and wavering consumer expectations. Many companies have had to change key aspects of their businesses—product offerings, days/hours of operation, pay rates and logistical processes—just to remain afloat. But the pandemic revealed some interesting consumer reactions to these changes.   It was astounding, for example, to see people rally around restaurants, especially locally owned ones, to provide continued support during shutdowns. Their hearts filled with compassion for small-business owners, and social media was inundated with consumers’ appeals to others to patronize these businesses in part so they could pay their employees. Then, as employees increasingly chose not to return to work at restaurants and other low-wage jobs, people voiced their outrage at business owners for their pay rates and shifted their solidarity a bit. All the while, we saw an increase in consumer complaints about individuals not wanting to work, long wait times, stores being out of stock, providers raising prices, and unfavorable service encounters. These things are interrelated and have caused a snowball effect.    It is important for service providers to effectively manage consumer expectations. During the pandemic, it was not uncommon to see signs on retailers’ doors stating that “customers may experience longer than normal wait times due to staff shortages.” At least upon encountering such a sign, the customer knew what to expect and had a choice of whether to proceed in their patronage.  Likewise, if a professor has a larger-than-normal class size, it may be wise to remove from the syllabus promises of replying to calls and emails within 24 hours or returning graded assignments within three days. In other words, providers must be careful not to overpromise.   Still, ever-changing consumer expectations will always create challenges. It is not feasible to change service delivery procedures every time consumers shift the bar. Instead, providers should focus on the basics of service quality, such as being reliable, responsive and trustworthy. At the same time, consumers must carry some of the responsibility by not holding providers to unreasonable expectations, showing kindness to service workers, and continuing to advocate for fairness across the board.  It is unlikely that overall customer satisfaction and service quality ratings will improve significantly in the near future. Research shows that those ratings are not completely reliable and must be coupled with other measures to truly understand consumer behavior. Yet, in the meantime, hopefully marketers have gained valuable insight from the pandemic that will make the overall service experience better for all.     Dr. Carla Childers is an associate professor of Marketing at Bellarmine whose research interests lie in the areas of consumer behavior and services marketing. Her publications cover topics including service quality, place branding, hospitality and tourism, and marketing pedagogy.    New Marketing degree  Beginning this fall, Bellarmine University’s W. Fielding Rubel School of Business is offering a bachelor’s degree in Marketing. The new Marketing major will prepare students for a variety of professional opportunities in sales, product management, marketing research, retailing, advertising, business-to-business marketing, international marketing, and other aspects of the field.   With the rapid growth of digital marketing, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects a 6.7 percent employment growth rate for marketing managers between 2019 and 2029.  In addition to most of the required B.A. in Business Administration degree courses, Marketing majors will complete courses in the areas of Marketing Research, Digital Marketing, Professional Selling, Consumer Behavior, and Marketing Strategy.  Find more information on the Marketing degree website.