I am satisfied!

Has the course so far lived up to my expectations?
Well the short answer is YES! J

I had to remind myself what my expectations were. I wrote in my first blog that “I hoped that the course would help me to build a network to help me and my colleagues to reflect on our company’s challenges, and I also hoped to get a better platform of knowledge”.

The course so far has not only helped me to build a network outside of work (which is great), but above all a network within the organization. I have a colleagues that has joined the open course out of interest (and perhaps one more that will join). We now have interesting discussions about the different theories. I also have colleagues that are interested in what I study and are following my blog. This also gives me new opportunities to reflect upon theories in the context of company challenges.

My satisfaction judgement of this course has been experience based and not based on quality of the course as I would have thought before learning about the theories behind.

I have learned through the theories that quality of a product/service and satisfaction judgement is different concepts which needs to be considered within the organization, especially when working towards having “the most satisfied customers” like my organization do. To be able to increase customer satisfaction our company need to consider what actually influence satisfaction. We need to be aware of the difference between quality judgement and satisfaction judgement.  Traditionally we have measured rational parameters, interpreted in my organization to speed of our BB, design of the modem, surf uptime etc, and now we also have to add perceived or subjective quality, for instance if speed is good enough for my own consumption over internet, for streaming the films that my friends do or playing the games that my friends play etc. (regardless of what speed it is). Is my BB working at the time of day when I am chatting with my friends? (Not if it is working 99,8% or 99,9% of the time).

I set the expectations on the course after reading about the course content. But, while reflecting on my expectations I realize that my own expectations was described according to measurable parameters, but in fact I was not only expecting a new network, but a new network relevant for me that I felt confident to use and that I trust. In fact I was not even aware of my own expectations, or I did not know what I could expect or what made me satisfied before my studies started. Anyway performance has over delivered compared to expectations and disconfirmation has arisen and lead to satisfaction, (according to the disconfirmation model).

From the way I talk about this course I can relate to the theory that word of mouth, loyalty and repeated purchase is a consequence of satisfaction. I talk well about the course, I intend to continue my study and if there will be a continuing course I will definitely look over the possibility to take that one too.

Gabriella Elias