the client, but it may not cost us current and future business if the idea had their best interest at heart.

With that kind of thinking (hopefully) taking place, let’s walk through some things you can consider in making sure your business is meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

Evaluate Your Landscape
Look around at your competitors and determine what areas cannot be compromised within the current competitive landscape. What areas a

We all have a common set of expectations from certain industries we do business with that we won’t compromise if those expectations aren’t met. We expect to hear a dial tone when we pick up the telephone when no one else is using it. We expect our cars to start in the morning when we get ready to leave for work. It’s implied that a restaurant will prepare our food properly and follow satisfactory sanitary guidelines. If we pay our electric bill on time, we expect the lights to work when we flip the switch. Same goes for the water bill—we expect water when the faucet or shower is “started.” These are expectations set, in part, by the industries providing the service, but they are also engrained in our culture as things to gripe about quickly should there be any form of disruption.

When is the last time you weren’t alarmed by a power outage even if it occurred after a major storm? You likely called the utility company immediately to tell them all the while understanding you probably weren’t the first person calling. If your telephone didn’t have dial tone, you likely sought out a cell phone to track down the utility and phone companies to alert them of the disruptions, right? Your common sense told you that a pole must be down or a set of lines got cut somehow, but you went ahead and called anyway. We all do this even though we understand the companies we’re alerting have a good chance of knowing about the outage anyway.

If you were to think of your company in the same light, what would be some things your customers have come to expect that are deal breakers if you don’t live up to the industry’s established and implied expectations? For my company, a consulting firm, I believe all bets are off if we don’t put the customer’s interests first throughout the relationship. We can come up with a bad idea that definitely won’t please the client, but it may not cost us current and future business if the idea had their best interest at heart.

With that kind of thinking (hopefully) taking place, let’s walk through some things you can consider in making sure your business is meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

Evaluate Your Landscape
Look around at your competitors and determine what areas cannot be compromised within the current competitive landscape. What areas a

hts to work when we flip the switch. Same goes for the water bill—we expect water when the faucet or shower is “started.” These are expectations set, in part, by the industries providing the service, but they are also engrained in our culture as things to gripe about quickly should there be any form of disruption.

When is the last time you weren’t alarmed by a power outage even if it occurred after a major storm? You likely called the utility company immediately to tell them all the while understanding you probably weren’t the first person calling. If your telephone didn’t have dial tone, you likely sought out a cell phone to track down the utility and phone companies to alert them of the disruptions, right? Your common sense told you that a pole must be down or a set of lines got cut somehow, but you went ahead and called anyway. We all do this even though we understand the companies we’re alerting have a good chance of knowing about the outage anyway.

If you were to think of your company in the same light, what would be some things your customers have come to expect that are deal breakers if you don’t live up to the industry’s established and implied expectations? For my company, a consulting firm, I believe all bets are off if we don’t put the customer’s interests first throughout the relationship. We can come up with a bad idea that definitely won’t please the client, but it may not cost us current and future business if the idea had their best interest at heart.

With that kind of thinking (hopefully) taking place, let’s walk through some things you can consider in making sure your business is meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

Evaluate Your Landscape
Look around at your competitors and determine what areas cannot be compromised within the current competitive landscape. What areas a

y immediately to tell them all the while understanding you probably weren’t the first person calling. If your telephone didn’t have dial tone, you likely sought out a cell phone to track down the utility and phone companies to alert them of the disruptions, right? Your common sense told you that a pole must be down or a set of lines got cut somehow, but you went ahead and called anyway. We all do this even though we understand the companies we’re alerting have a good chance of knowing about the outage anyway.

If you were to think of your company in the same light, what would be some things your customers have come to expect that are deal breakers if you don’t live up to the industry’s established and implied expectations? For my company, a consulting firm, I believe all bets are off if we don’t put the customer’s interests first throughout the relationship. We can come up with a bad idea that definitely won’t please the client, but it may not cost us current and future business if the idea had their best interest at heart.

With that kind of thinking (hopefully) taking place, let’s walk through some things you can consider in making sure your business is meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

Evaluate Your Landscape
Look around at your competitors and determine what areas cannot be compromised within the current competitive landscape. What areas a

ce of knowing about the outage anyway.

If you were to think of your company in the same light, what would be some things your customers have come to expect that are deal breakers if you don’t live up to the industry’s established and implied expectations? For my company, a consulting firm, I believe all bets are off if we don’t put the customer’s interests first throughout the relationship. We can come up with a bad idea that definitely won’t please the client, but it may not cost us current and future business if the idea had their best interest at heart.

With that kind of thinking (hopefully) taking place, let’s walk through some things you can consider in making sure your business is meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

Evaluate Your Landscape
Look around at your competitors and determine what areas cannot be compromised within the current competitive landscape. What areas a

the client, but it may not cost us current and future business if the idea had their best interest at heart.

With that kind of thinking (hopefully) taking place, let’s walk through some things you can consider in making sure your business is meeting and exceeding customer expectations.

Evaluate Your Landscape
Look around at your competitors and determine what areas cannot be compromised within the current competitive landscape. What areas are viewed by customers as implied expectations because of your industry? Which areas can you capitalize to differentiate yourself from your competitors and raise the bar? I’m a big proponent of establishing differentiation in an area your competitors are weak as it pushes them into reactionary mode. Organizations which aren’t capable of adapting quickly are severely threatened when the competition changes the rules of the game, and it ultimately forces them to either spend a lot of money to catch up when this happens or concede defeat by going in a different direction. Wouldn’t you rather be the one creating change versus reacting to it?

Issue an Ultimatum to Your Organization
If you’ve figured out what expectations cannot be compromised, take the next step by issuing an ultimatum to your organization. For example, Domino’s changed the pizza delivery game with their “30 minutes or less or it’s free” guarantee when they entered the market. There are no guarantees like that around now thanks to lawsuits and whatnot, but that set an industry expectation that it is realistic to expect a pizza to be delivered to your door in 30 minutes or less. What do most people do if they place a pizza order today and the delivery is estimated to take 45 minutes? They take their business elsewhere so this has become an implied industry expectation that customers are hesitant to let go. By issuing that ultimatum to their franchisees and employees, Dominos sent a message that they were serious about being timely and efficient. Other chains had to follow suit or risk being left out. What are some things in your industry which could be used as ultimatums to your organization in addition to being bar raisers?

Openly Accept Feedback
If you are going to give an ultimatum to your company and the industry it competes, it makes no sense to hide