Managing Expectations: Under Promise and Over Deliver

I recently wrote a post about problems I had with my phone line.  What I didn't write about was the result of that call for help to the phone company.

Things didn't start out well.  I called on Saturday afternoon and was told that the soonest they could send someone out was "Tuesday morning between 8 and noon."  Less than thrilled to be without phone, and especially Internet service, for so long, I accepted my fate and made arrangements to take Tuesday morning off of work to be here when the phone company arrived.  Trips to the library and to local restaurants that offer free WiFi allowed my wife and I to check email and take care of some work we had to do.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I got a call Monday afternoon from the phone company repair guy who said he was on they way to our house and wanted to talk about the problems we were having.  My delight was doubled when he told me that the problem was most likely on the outside and that I didn't need to meet him at the house.  In a final example of excellent customer service, this gentleman had the courtesy to call me back, tell me what he had done (most of which I didn't understand) and tell me that everything should be working again.  This was a classic case of someone exceeding my expectations.

I think over promising has to be one of the most common mistakes made by marketers.  More and more companies, in order to make a better first impression, are making claims and promises that are closer and closer to the best possible outcomes their consumers should expect for their products and services.  While that might be effective in garnering more first tries, when the average customer experience falls below the marketing assertions, the majority of your first tries will also be last tries.

The company that under promises and over delivers is taking a long term marketing path toward building a strong customer base.  While a company taking this approach might engage fewer customers early on, many more of their customers who do try their product or service, will continue to be customers if their expectations are exceeded.

If the phone company had told me the repairman was going to be there Monday, I would have gotten the exact same service, but my expectations would have been different.  I would have been less thrilled with the outcome.