Don't give your clients milk when they want water (Photo by annethelibrarian)
It was a Tuesday evening, and I had just arrived home from work. It was unusually hot for early April, and I was ready for a large glass of ice-cold water.
In my post-work trance, I went to the fridge and unknowingly poured a large glass of milk. Without thinking or looking I took a huge gulp. To my pallet’s surprise it was not water I was drinking, but milk—yuck! I spat the mouthful all over the kitchen floor.
Now, you need to understand, I am a milk drinker. I love milk. On any given day I would have been perfectly happy drinking this large glass of milk. It was not spoiled. It had not gone bad. It simply was not what I had expected when I opened my mouth and took the gulp.
What Does Milk Have to Do with Service Delivery?
What went wrong? Why was I so disappointed when I had a perfectly good glass of milk sitting right in front of me?
The problem is milk is not what I was expecting. In my mind I was expecting, wanting, and craving ice-cold water but when the glass hit my lips that is not what I got.
Your service delivery is no different. Setting clear expectations is the key to success.
Too often professionals fall into the trap of setting expectations too high. Clients ask, ”Exactly how much will you save me in operational efficiencies?” Or, “What type of results can we expect from this campaign?” Or, “Can you also integrate our accounting and marketing automation software into that?” Not wanting to disappoint our new client, we give optimistic estimates and respond with, ”Sure we can do that.”
Or, even worse, we set unclear expectations and are vague about exactly what the deliverable will be. They have a vision of one thing, and they get something different entirely.
When you set expectations too high or are unclear about the expectations with the client, you are only setting yourself up for defeat. Only promise what you know you can deliver. If your client does not accept these expectations, it is much better to find out before a project begins than once it is complete.
Not to mention that when you under promise and over deliver, you end up looking like a knight in shining armor.
So, if you promise your clients a drink—be specific about what kind of drink. Will it be water, milk, soda, or lemonade?
If you promise your client water, deliver water—deliver the freshest, coldest glass of water you can produce.
And, if your client expects water and all you have is a bunch of milkmen, don’t set the expectation that you will give them the best darn glass of water they’ve ever had. They may end up spitting it all over the kitchen floor.
The key to GREAT service delivery: Set clear expectations, then meet and exceed those expectations.
