I have recently had two very different customer experiences.   The first… a bouquet to the woman at Air NZ  lost Luggage in Wellington… I had carelessly left my I pad on a plane. On calling, found it had not been   handed in… she interrupted my conversation.. took off to get my seat checked again.. and within 30 minutes my I pad had been found and couriered to me. Great service (and a very relived me). Air NZ lived up to their advertising. Well done.

And the brick… purchasing an on line book. The site said the book was in stock and would be shipped within 24 hours… great.. excited I hit the buy button.. to be given an expected arrival date range of 2 to 4 weeks! Optimistically  I waited… on the last day an email informed me of  a delay of another 2  to 4 weeks due to supplier being out of stock… 3 weeks latter..  I was informed the book was on its way..on the last day another communication to advice of further shipping delays.. and another date promised. This time I managed to cancel the order. A site I will not trust again.

These two very different scenarios reminded me of how critical recognising and meeting or exceeding customer expectations is.   We feel disappointed, let down, frustrated etc when our expectations are not met.   We all get that. But do we really understand what our customers’ expectations are?  Do we assume them or do we take the time to check?  In the last week or day..  what might we have promised or our customer assumed that we may not have delivered on?

I asked my accountant to check some numbers, I task I assumed would take 15 minutes. The invoice was for 90 minutes. Should I have asked?  YES should he have set the expectation up front? YES.

Perhaps we said we would contact a person by the end of the week… or not given a time frame…being busy we let it slip till the next week.  Some people will not notice or care, for others it will be effect how they view us and our company.  We may never know how we have let them down, they may just walk away.

Note to self.. What expectations I have set? What am I delivering on or not delivering on?