Want to Exceed Your Client's Expectations? Here's How.

By: Kathy Kent Toney, CEO & Founder of Kent Business Solutions

Image by rawpixel on Freepik

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Many of us have experienced the unfortunate situation where we have let down a client or colleague by not delivering as promised. Ugh, it’s certainly not a great feeling, especially if you lost their trust or their business.

There is a better way! You can help prevent similar situations from occurring again by doing two things. I’m sure you’ve heard these “two things” many times before, but I know for me, I like to listen to things repeatedly to remind me of their importance.

Here they are:

Under-Promise and Over-Deliver

There are a couple of ways to go about this:

1. Deliver More than What's Expected

Here’s a good example:

I worked with a local manufacturer to develop a Voice of the Customer process for product development purposes. We had developed the process and realized that automating it would be optimal. At the time, we hadn’t planned on doing this. The CEO asked me to look for process automation platforms that would work for our application.

When we investigated the currently available platforms, there were no cost-effective options. My client wrote off the idea; however, I saw how important this was to them, so I told them I’d try to create a semi-automated one.

For a very reasonable price, I created a PDF process map with links that sent them to whatever documents or systems they needed in the process so that they’d have everything they needed right there at their fingertips.

The CEO was so thrilled with the result! It wasn’t anything they expected, and that made me very happy as well!

2. Deliver Earlier than What's Expected

This idea is self-explanatory, but here’s another example:

Whenever I’m buying something on eBay, I’m always thrilled when it’s something I needed yesterday, and I get it much sooner than promised. If you can do this with your clients, they’ll most likely love that as well!

3. Deliver More and Earlier Than What's Expected

Who doesn’t like getting something beyond what they expect before they expect it? Providing both aspects with your deliveries, especially regularly, will help drive customer satisfaction and customer loyalty.


So, in the end, the philosophy of under-promising and over-delivering your products and services to customers can reap enormous dividends for your company. And who doesn’t want that?

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One topic that many of us have been hearing a lot about lately is the Metaverse. Are you curious to know how it will impact your business? Well, you are in luck! I interviewed Tony Moroney on this topic for my Elevate Your Profitability podcast. He is with the Digital Transformation Lab at Cork University in Ireland. I'd love for you to check it out!

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Click the button below to check out the podcast!

Metaverse Podcast

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