REASON #1 – Why you need marketing lagniappe?
This past summer I was in New York City with a colleague from Synergy. Brad and I were at a rooftop bar waiting to meet a few people before heading over to a networking event. I noticed a guy sitting on his own for over 15 minutes. It was obvious that he was waiting for someone. I struck up a conversation about waiting. I offered my standard line:
Do you know that we spend 10% of our life waiting?
We started talking about waiting and the importance of being on time. Right then this guy said something that was a paradigm shift for me [a true 'knock you in your tracks' Tyler Durden moment].
I’ll paraphase it:
There is no such thing as being on time. Being on time is a fallacy. You either are early . . . or you are late. No one is ever on time. On time is a myth.
I immediately starting thinking about how this applies to business and the idea of meeting expectations. I’ve always thought the idea of meeting expectations is a surefire recipe for losing business. It’s similar to playing prevent defense in football . . . it prevents you from winning.
This new paradigm has only made it clearer for me. Meeting expectations is a myth. Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy and Meeting Expectations. Sorry kids . . . they are all myths.
You either fall below expectations or you exceed. It bears repeating:
‘There is no such thing as meeting expectations’
In a world where 60-80%* of customers describe their customer satisfaction as satisfied or very satisfied before going on to defect to other brands, ‘meeting expectations’ is no longer an option.
The Solution:
Make it a practice to always overdeliver. Find ways to give a little extra . . find your ‘purple goldfish’. Simply set your bar higher than the expectations of your customers. Provide a little something extra to your customers for ‘good measure’. Your goal should be to strive to bring unique value to the customer. Never settle for being seen as a ‘commodity’.
