Setting Expectations
I’ll be there definitely on Friday. Maybe Monday.
How many times have you heard this statement or some iteration of, from someone you are relying on be it a plumber or your accountant? I will be there definitely on Friday. Will you? Or maybe what you meant was I might be there on Friday. This is where the linguist in me wants to go on a diatribe of the semantical difference in modals; will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might, must… but, I’ll reserve that for my nerd linguist colleagues and leave the reader with a teaser from the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Linguistics:
“[M]odals have a single, invariant form.”[1]
I’ve been chastised in my circle of friends for trying to communicate clearly. One friend commented recently, You’re too literal with the definitions of words.
Yeah? Really? Am I?
But languages are beautiful. Used properly, language can take an abstract thought and set into motion a chain of events that impact the world. In 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his final speech in Memphis Tennessee calling out to the world We Shall Overcome[2].
But in an alternate universe, what if he had declared, We Might Overcome?
How might that have changed the course of history?
Using this same premise then, how might our experience as customers differ if the way we communicate and are communicated with respects this key area? If you respect my time as customer, if you deliver according to what we have actually agreed, how might I feel differently following our interaction and exchange of money for service?
A key element to a quality customer service experience is setting expectations with our customers. A customer’s time and money are valuable commodities to that individual and should be to us as service providers. On average we spend 1/3 of our life at work[3], and frankly, for many of us that’s not what we prefer to be doing. But we do it for money. And we use that money to improve our Life. We use that money on goods and services. We use that money at your business. We literally take that money, that 1/3 of our Life out of our pocket and hand it to you… and then you do the same, and the cycle continues.
Assuming this is true, the question then becomes, when you are handing over your money, your Life, are you smiling and happy to do so? Or are you pissed, tired and frustrated? At least for me, I don’t mind if a business provider needs some time to get something right. Maybe the good or service that I want will take a week, or weeks, or a month. That’s not really a problem. What I don’t want is to have my Time and my Life wasted. I don’t want to sit by the phone all day waiting for someone to contact me, after they said they would… and then don’t. Honestly, I would prefer to be at the beach with my wife and dogs.
If P then Q
The following is a baseline mathematical representation from Applied Logic:
-If we run our business efficiently and effectively, then we know how long our service will take.
-If we know how long our service will take, we can communicate a reasonable timeline.
-Therefore, if we run our business efficiently and effectively, we can communicate a reasonable timeline.
Now, go back and read our Applied Logic series again adding the word don’t. Play around with it. But let’s ask ourselves, what kind of business are we operating? What kind of business do we want to operate?
Final Thoughts
Setting expectations from the beginning of our customer service interaction can lead to happy customers. Customers who will smile, take their money out of their pocket, hand it to you and say thank you. It is literally easier than robbing someone. Wasting our customers’ time, is wasting their money. Wasting their Life. And that is literally robbing someone.
What are your thoughts and experiences? Tell me what you think in the comment section below.
References
[1] https://www.ling.upenn.edu/~beatrice/syntax-textbook/box-modals.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/We_Shall_Overcome
[3] http://www.gettysburg.edu/news_vents/press_release_detail.dot?id=79db7b34-630c-4f49-ad32-4ab9ea48e72bn
