The idea of under promising and over
delivering certainly gives a good feeling, regardless of which position you
find yourself, either a as customer or a service provider. Can you imagine the delight of a customer when they’re
expecting one outcome, but get something pleasant entirely outside of their
expectations. Most
often, marketers who make ambitious claims and promises, end not living up to
them, and customers then become very unsatisfied and irritated. Failing live up to expectations can make a
marketer look very bad, in cases when those expectations are set by the marketer.
This makes customers disconnect or detach. In my own experience 2 weeks ago, I ordered a laptop at a particular website and was promised 3 to 7 business days of free delivery. It still hasn't been deliver yet. I have promised my self that never again will I buy from them regardless of how good the deal is. I am now a dissatisfied customer.
Under
promising and over delivering is marketing technique which can help build
loyalty and customer confidence. When a customer makes a purchase it’s always
nice to provide a deadline but with a little padding. It is very important to
give realistic time frames or deadlines. For instance if you know a delivery
will take one week to complete, as much you want to be as accurate as possible,
it’s always wise to give a little room for uncertainties. I feel when you under
promise and over deliver as a marketer it adds value to your service, because
it gives your customers a delightful experience and a pleasant surprise they’re certainly
not expecting.
In the quest to under promise and over
deliver marketers must keep in mind to never to deliver late or deliver short, strive
to deliver when you said you would or earlier if you can, without any
exception. I believe it’s always better to negotiate a longer
delivery time in the first place than to have to let a customer down.
My question then is do you know any
company that under promises and over deliver? Have experience a pleasant surprise
lately? Did it change your perception about the company?
To under promise and over deliver is a great strategy for any company. It is the little things in life that keeps consumers coming back for more. I recently bought something off Amazon.com. It was a set of specialty cake pans to make those topsy-turvey cakes. I do not make a lot of cakes, only dabble in them for the fun of it. After the pans arrived the entire process of making this multi-layer cake seemed daunting. Along with the pans was a business card with the name and number of the seller with a note that read “If you need any advise, please call”. So I called her. This was a great example of over delivering. She told me what had worked for her and what hadn’t, she let me know of other tricks to make the cakes bake at the optimal level, as well as what to expect. For my next cake related purchase, I will definitely visit her website again.
ReplyDeleteManaging expectations is an essential part of any business and there are a lot of demanding people. As marketing major I have learned that the best way to handle under promising and over delivering is be honest with people and tell them the truth, give people the details of things so that they will know when things will arrive, and explain why things are going to have to be delivered late.
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question about a company that has under promised something and over delivered, restaurants do this a lot when they quite you a wait time. If you quote a wait time of 30 to 40 minutes, but they actually seat you in 20 minutes you feel that they wait was not that long and you begin to feel good about the service.
However, if a restaurant does the opposite and quotes you a time of 15 to 20 minutes and actually seats you at 30 minutes you will be annoyed and your customer service experience begins to go down.