Under Promise, Over Deliver – Key to Business Success | Small business news; tips; networking

Posted by AngelBiz under Customer Service
From http://www.smallbizviewpoints.com 130 days ago
Made Hot by: BusinessBloggerPro on January 14, 2013 9:28 pm

Why is it important to adopt the principle of Under Promise and Over Deliver to manage the customer expectations. Customers who are pleasantly surprised with positive experience with your business will keep coming back to your business day after day.

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Comments

Written by HeatherStone
119 days ago

What a great reminder that satisfying customers has a lot to do with managing expectations. It's something many businesses forget especially in the beginning when struggling to get those first accounts.

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Written by HeatherStone
118 days ago

So true, Harry! Especially about Apple! After getting customers used to the idea of constant product innovation, Apple has no apparent new products on the drawing board. How could customers not be disappointed?

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Written by AngelBiz
118 days ago

Heather - completely agree with you. Apple is a great example of managing customer (and investor) expectations properly can help your business. On the other hand if not done properly it can do great harm, as the precipitous decline in Apple stock today shows.

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Written by lyceum
121 days ago

Harry Vaishnav: Do you have examples of other companies that are over delivering?

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Written by AngelBiz
119 days ago

Zappos you mentioned earlier is a great example. Another great company I admire is Amazon. They always deliver ahead of their promised delivery time. Nordstrom in retail and Ritz Carlton in hotel industry are also pretty good at this.

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Written by tcamba
125 days ago

I especially love when companies do these. I love how companies go beyond my expectations. I'm a hundred percent sure that I would be telling my friends about it.

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Written by AngelBiz
123 days ago

Teepu - That's exactly my point. When you delight your customer with something they didn't expect you can not only get that customer for a long time, but several of her friends. Thanks for your feedback.

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Written by lyceum
126 days ago

Have you heard about how Zappos are under promise and over deliver? They upgrade the shipping to the customers and you receive the goods earlier than planned.

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Written by AngelBiz
125 days ago

Zappos is one of the great companies that can teach about customer service to everyone. Their customer service reps have lot of leeway to make sure customers are happy. They are allowed to upgrade shipping without having to get approval from supervisors.

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Written by AngelBiz
127 days ago

@Tom – You are taking the right approach. I am sure every one of your customers is very satisfied. I wish more of small business owners would think and act like you. It would make their task of competing with big boys lot more easier because this is really the point of differentiation for them.

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Written by tcwatson
128 days ago

WOW... You are spot on! I loved the article, and have been spreading the gospel of that approach for some time. For me, I'm in the service business (janitorial and carpet cleaning). For example, for a carpet cleaning service request we exceed expectations by being on-time, not "crowding the doorway" when knocking on the door, having name tags visible, asking for permission to enter a home, placing booties on our feet so we don't dirty their carpet etc... Then we always try to clean something for free, such as a small area rug or doorway mat. These are all little "moments of truth" where you go beyond what other companies do, thus building up a series of "positives" that the customer notices. It's different for each type of business, but you are right, you must exceed expectations.

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Sian is the Managing Editor of TweakYourBiz.com, an Associate with The Ahain Group and a Moderator on BizSugar. With over 20 years' worth of experience in business and …