Heading into one of the most highly anticipated presidential debates in history, Barack Obama wants you to believe, “Gov. Romney is a good debater. I’m just OK.” Meanwhile, a Romney spokeswoman is declaring, “President Obama is the most gifted speaker in modern history.”
While this may sound a little counter-intuitive, this might be one of the few marketing strategies most of us should pay attention to…
Let’s face it, Obama’s been widely believed to have stronger debate skills than Romney, right?
Well this leaves the door open for Romney to exceed expectations, with the pressure on Barack Obama not to disappoint.
But it’s no different than how entrepreneurs set expectations for their businesses.
Predictable Profits Insiders’ Club Members expect to receive proven marketing strategies and information that’s going to help them, as strategic entrepreneurs, grow their company towards becoming a more profitable, more competitive, and better version of their existing business.
Southwest Airlines makes it understood that there are no fringe benefits with their airline; you have to wait in line to get a seat, and there will be no meals served on board. But because they’ve actively established customer expectations up front, the airline repeatedly receives positive ratings and reviews.
The same applies to a company like Zappos. When you deal with Zappos, they’ve set the expectations for “Wow!” customer service and a no-hassle shopping experience.
On the flip side of the coin, a company like Wal-Mart manages expectations by promising low-prices, but makes no mention of great customer service or any sort of high-end shopping experience.
These companies know the importance of setting, managing, and reinforcing customer expectations.
Customers will be satisfied to the degree their expectations are met.
Should expectations not be met, customers will be unsatisfied… and exceeding customer expectations will result in a happy customer!
Customer expectations must be communicated in the entrepreneur’s marketing message, reinforced with the company’s employees, and must be continuously met without failure or deviation.
You see, the role of marketing goes beyond just accumulating new sales; it also involves managing customer expectations for the benefit of happy customers, repeat customer purchases, and referral business.
Yet entrepreneurs often underestimate the importance of managing their customers’ expectations.
If you don’t tell people what they should expect when they do business with you, they’ll make up their own assumptions. Now the danger with that approach is if your customer expectations are higher than what you’re delivering, you will inevitably disappoint your customer and generate negative word of mouth publicity. Now if you manage your expectations at a level you know you can meet every single time, and then exceed those expectations, you’ve created a happy customer.
And we know there’s nothing more powerful than a business with lots of happy customers!
In your corner,
Charlie
