“The key is to set realistic customer expectations, and then not to just meet them, but to exceed them — preferably in unexpected and helpful ways.” Richard Branson
It’s an overlooked problem: “We (the company) know what we’re talking about and the customer will ask us if they have any questions or confusions.” (And if you’ve not seen the insightful video, Exceeding Expectations, click here to watch it.)
Frankly, leaving it up the customer to sort things out is a load of crap and is branding suicide. And it’s the most shortsighted and arrogant look at conducting business and building a brand I’ve run across.
The Only Acceptable Standard:
Amazing Your Customers at Every Turn
Seth Godin said it very well, “Traditional corporations, particularly large-scale service and manufacturing businesses are organized for efficiency. Or consistency. But not joy. Joy comes from surprise and connection and humanity and transparency and new…If you fear special requests, if you staff with cogs, if you have to put it all in a manual, then the chances of amazing someone are really quite low.”
Any business is in the business of helping others. Whether it’s B2B or B2C.
Or non-profit, or for-profit.
Doesn’t matter.
“Merely helping” (versus passionately anticipating needs and serving the customer) is lousy and costly business.
Exceeding expectations is the baseline, not some wonderful target to attain “when things work out.”
The Question for Your Customers
The question is simple: “Are we helping our customer in every way possible, at every touch point, with our brand?”
This includes:
- instructions
- tutorials
- tips for product use
- package design for ease in identification
- clarity in any documentation
Recently, as part of the Dunn Bothers branding (shown here and here), we designed a poster to identify what type of roast you can get at the stores. What it provides is:
- a color scheme for each type of roast
- an easy-to-understand description of each type of roast
- a coordinated color identification system that provides easy recognition for when customers return
The poster is shown here:
It’s in the Details
To make this in-store poster helpful:
- Each roast has its own unique icon designed
- Each roast has a simple description, staying away from being complex or “geeky”
- Each roast has a distinct color that successfully works here and on the packaging
- Each description can be read (and understood) in a few seconds (which is one of the reasons we all hate when we call a company for help only to get shoved into a time-consuming, endless and pre-recorded “menu tree” that violates our need for speed but is “great for the company’s efficiency” — they should listen to some of the time-consuming rants customer service personnel get when we finally survive one of those labyrinthian slices of hell)
Each detail respected the customer, their time and their values.
And this is how it shows up on the retail packaging and coffee cards that insert into each roast:
So with all that said, how are you exceeding (and assisting) the expectations of your customer?
