One of the world’s biggest VIPs, Pope Francis, is coming to Philadelphia next week and our city is ready to roll out the red carpet. And although public figures of this magnitude do require special attention, aren’t all guests entitled to VIP treatment? The art of exceeding customer expectations, and being able to deliver more than the customer expected in the first place, is a necessity for all customer-driven businesses. In a perfect world companies would always be able to go “above and beyond” and deliver on their promises. Unfortunately, staffing resources and inventory limitations don’t always allow for promises to be kept. This is when the strategy of under promising allows for a finessed approach to managing customer expectations.
So, how is it done?
As a former hotel concierge, this tactic was amazingly useful. Can you imagine what would have happened if I told every guest that I could definitely secure a table for them at the hottest restaurant in town? By under promising, I later appeared heroic when I was able to secure their coveted table.
Two recent hotel check-in experiences also highlight how managing expectations plays a significant role in guest satisfaction:
- On the way to Penn State for the annual arts festival I telephoned the hotel to alert them we would be arriving ahead of the scheduled check-in time and was hopeful we might be able to secure our room early. We were informed that they couldn’t guarantee room availability prior to check-in, a commonly scripted response, but they would be glad to store our bags. I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived to the hotel, two hours early, we were able to gain access to our room.
- The opposite was true on a recent road trip to Pittsburgh for a friend’s wedding. We had planned to get changed at the hotel to avoid traveling in our black-tie attire and were dependent on an early check-in. I had called ahead the day before and was given a guarantee that all wedding block rooms had been given an early check-in time of Noon. Upon arrival to the hotel around 1:30pm we were told our room wasn’t ready.
In conclusion, be mindful of what you promise to a customer and go the extra mile to deliver.