Have you ever told a customer, “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it” and then found yourself in trouble because you both thought “it” had different definitions? When it comes to meeting expectations, ambiguity breeds conflict. The more something is left to chance, the greater the chance there will be disagreement because “it” wasn’t explained in enough detail. If I remember correctly, one of our former presidents had trouble defining what “it” is.
Most entrepreneurs will say that they want to exceed customer expectations, or at least meet those expectations. We all nod in agreement at the frequently (perhaps overused) phrase, “Underpromise and overdeliver.” Yes, it’s great when you can do that, but unless you know what your customer expects, you can’t overdeliver. In fact, you may not even be able to deliver “it” at all because you haven’t defined it correctly and they expect one thing while you deliver something else entirely. That’s when you hear a customer sadly say, “I was expecting something different!”
Managing your customers’ expectations is a crucial element in meeting those expectations. The more specific you are when offering or proposing your services, the less chance there will be of conflict which then increases the chance of satisfaction.
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The house painter gets in trouble when the customer sells him to paint the walls white and he goes ahead and paints the walls with the white paint he often uses. But if he shows her the paint swatch chart with fifty shades of “white” to choose from, the color is likely to meet expectations, avoiding conflict because he used the exact shade of “white” that she specified.
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Order your steak “medium rare” from a steakhouse where the menu defines medium rare as “warm pink center” and your steak will be at that specific degree of doneness or you’re perfectly within your rights to return it.
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Tell your customer “I’ll have it back next week” leaves a five-day range of possible completion days, but your customer won’t wonder when you say, “I’ll get it back to you next week, Friday at latest.”
Before you can over-deliver, you must first have a good understanding of what your customer’s expectations are. The more specific you can be in defining those expectations, the easier it will be to manage them and meet or even exceed them. Therefore, strive to be specific when you promise “it.”
Question or comment to Larry: [email protected]