Keep Your Promises

A common motto for customer service is "Exceed the customer's expectations." Although fine-sounding, this motto doesn't work in practice. Each time you exceed expectations, it nudges the expectations up for the next time the customer visits. At some point, it's no longer profitable—or maybe even possible—to keep raising the bar for yourselves.
     In fact, the customer might not even notice if you do manage to exceed their expectations, unless the excess is dramatic. Researchers at University of Georgia and University of Southern California looked at situations where shoppers ended up feeling either somewhat better or somewhat worse about their experience than they'd expected. When shoppers' expectations were exceeded, the shoppers often took it for granted and didn't give lots of credit to the product or service. It was when expectations were NOT met—when the store's promises were NOT kept—that there was more likely to be an impact on the evaluation of the product or service.
     So to ignite the mental fireworks inside your shoppers' heads, all it could require is to consistently keep your promises. Do you promise the lowest prices in the area? The broadest selection? The latest distinctive merchandise? The quickest checkouts? Whatever it is, be sure to deliver.
     If you're a manager, then delivering on promises to customers means knowing what the customers are being promised. A special danger with commissioned salespeople is that they'll overpromise in order to make the sale. Actually, though, overpromising can happen in any retail situation just because the salespeople want to help out the customer or don't know the limitations of the products.
     One more thing: It is much more likely that your employees will keep their promises to the customers when you keep the promises you make to your employees.
     Regularly check that promises are kept.