Comments on: Should You Exceed Expectations or Not?

By: my blog

my blog — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 06:39:42 +0000

guten tag

By: Sara

Sara — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 07:37:47 +0000

The best blog which I saw

By: Always Gunning For The Next Big Score : Instigator Blog

Always Gunning For The Next Big Score : Instigator Blog — Mon, 05 Feb 2007 17:06:39 +0000

[...] It could be that customers complain if the cab driver goes too slow; there’s an expectation for the entire industry — cab drivers must drive at blazing, reckless speeds — and so everyone works to achieve that, and surpass it. That also makes some sense. [...]

By: GP

GP — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 00:30:27 +0000

As an innkeeper, this really hits home (pun intended)… we have a standard operating procedure(SOP) that we go through when guests who eventually leave as friends/family get when they arrive.

We strive for hospitality service actually though we did have one guest that short of giving a first born couldnt be made happy.

I agree with Robert on setting the “bar”..I was dealing with a software company that were awful on a good day.. i wont buy a thing again from them. Then a bank/mortgage company who revamped their customer service and have renewed my faith in them with “guarded optimism”. :)

GP in Montana

By: Charles H. Green

Charles H. Green — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:44:56 +0000

Nice discussion. I think Ben and Robert have it quite right. I certainly dind’t mean in my original post to denigrate the idea of doing great things, or of surprises, or of above and beyond–I’m totally in favor of those things.

Just as long as they’re not cynically pre-planned, and that they’re the result of genuine work, hence somewhat random; as you both point out.

By: Robert

Robert — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:35:37 +0000

Both thoughts may be correct under the right circumstances. It depends on whether you are setting the expectation or the expectation is already established by common perception.

For example, big software vendors are notorious for bad customer service (even though customers pay incredible prices for it), so if you really perform great service you are exceeding your customers _perceived_ expectation and that is good.

On the other side, if I am say a software developer and I always say it will take me 3 months to do something and I always finish it in 2 weeks, then that is bad and no one will really trust just my judgment.

Somewhere in between is the ‘Scotty’ effect — Scotty from Star Trek –, where a high profile project or emergency comes up and you aren’t sure it can be done and communicate that fact, then pull off the ‘miracle’, you are a hero. Just don’t do it too often :-)