Exceeding expectations - why you need to be careful

Are you the kind of person that always likes to exceed everyone’s expectations?  Yes, of course you are. It’s always good to do that, right?

When I was buying a new kitchen I had a supplier round to give me a quote. I don’t remember the exact figure but it was around £5000. The kitchen was OK, but not exactly what I was looking for.

Then, by chance, I found a place in Bristol that had, in its window, the most beautiful dresser I had ever seen. I still remember it now.

Silas Stephens

I went into the workshop and met Silas. I asked for a brochure. He didn’t have one, just a photo album. I looked at all the wonderful and original designs. Every one was different. Each fitted the house (or in some cases boat) perfectly.

His work ranged from kitchens to bathrooms to covers for wells and intricate country gates.

I was in love.  He came to my house in Nottingham and took lots of measurements. When he came back he had an armful of drawings, pieces of smooth varnished woods of various types and coloured tile.  He had a plan for turning my dingy kitchen into a welcoming and cosy monument to delicious food and hospitality.

In a few seconds I made the decision.

The other supplier

A week later, the other supplier came round to see if he had the order. I felt a little sorry for the salesman. The plastic trimmed units he was selling could simply not compete in any way with the beauty of the designs or the quality of the work from Silas.

I let him know that I had decided to go with a different supplier.
Exceeding my expectations

His response was, “I can halve the price for you.”

I was quite shocked. Questions sprang to mind:
How could he suddenly give me that much off?
What profit were they making on the original price?
What kind of quality could they possibly be offering at that price?

Instead of being impressed, I had even less confidence in them than I’d had before.

The programmers

Whilst working on our website we experienced many delays. At one stage we were told we would have to wait 15 (working) days to have some key work done. We weren’t happy with this, as you can imagine. However, they managed to do it in just 3.

Yes, this was exceeding our expectations (which had been set very low by now) but it did not make us very confident in their ability to plan.

We suspected that they were under-resourced and that they were madly juggling the work so that other customers were now waiting.

Exceeding expectations

It’s fine to exceed expectations in some ways, but you need to be careful you don’t make yourself look bad instead of looking good when you do this. Setting realistic expectations and showing you are reliable is also a very attractive (and sometimes undervalued) quality.