Institute of Service Excellence at SMU (ISES) Academic Director Assistant Professor Marcus Lee said: "A not uncommon reaction we have encountered is for some companies to want to actively lower the expectations of their customers in order to make it easier for them to exceed, and as a consequence, satisfy their customers." ISES Director Caroline Lim understands why companies sometimes adopt a strategy of seeking to surprise and delight the customer, and outdo his expectations. Unfortunately, she said, this often does not yield the desired outcomes and can even be punitive when customers' more basic expectations go unmet. Rather than knee-jerk attempts to push customers' expectations down, ISES proposes that companies look at things differently and get customers themselves to help with the push for higher satisfaction levels. "Service is co-created. Customers themselves play a role in the service exchange and experience. Customers themselves affect their own customer satisfaction," said Ms Lim.