The Power of Exceeding Expectations in Business

We often hear people talk about exceeding expectations. People talk as though it is an easy thing to do like giving a free cookie with a purchase. Let me tell you it is not easy, and it takes effort. Managing customer expectations is fundamental to growing the business with satisfied customers who are willing to give referrals. While customer commitment on functional capabilities and time to market should fulfill a customer’s requirements to run the business efficiently, under-promising and over delivering is a fundamental core trait of a successful software company. One must put himself, or herself in my case, in someone else’s shoes and really think about what would make that person’s day so much so that he (or she) would talk about what a thoughtful thing I had done.

In the realm of business, there are several standout examples of exceeding expectations. Remember Steve Jobs? He had a vision of putting 1000 songs in your pocket and the iPod was born. Knowing he had a limited horizon for this product since technology was changing rapidly, he reinvented the phone by merging the iPod functionality plus much more into the first iPhone.  His creative brain was always thinking about how to make people’s lives easier. His user centric design revolutionized the way we communicate and work and resulted in the first company to be valued at a trillion dollars.

We have heard the mantra “under promise but over deliver.” This is thought to be part of exceeding expectations in business, but it is not the complete picture. The same is true for “developing relationships.”

I’ll tell you how to do it. 

Exceed expectations immensely or extraordinarily. Everyone we encounter in business has expectations of us. When we meet expectations, that is just the minimum hurdle to overcome, the baseline. One must make a huge impact to be remembered as exceptional which then resets their expectations to a whole new level. When this happens, they tell their coworkers and friends. The word spreads and others want to work with you and your company. 

Tips:

• Really think about what would make your customers’ day. It could be new features to your product line or a new value proposition that they have not realized would make their jobs easier.
• Make it a priority to think about how you are going to exceed customer expectations daily.
• Get to know your customers at a personal level. Send birthday greetings, remember important events in their lives, personal or corporate. Remember the personal touch.
• Make your customers happy so they want to continue doing business with you.
• Remember that customers talk. They share their opinions. If a customer tells others that you always exceed expectations, new customers will come to you.

At Charter and Go, our number one objective is to exceed customer expectations. We have used it to design and enhance our system. A lot of ‘wow’ has already been implemented, but we strive to deliver more ‘wow’ every day.

Ann Vinod – VP of Finance