Interesting post on WorkPlayExperience about managing customer expectations to improve their experience. More specifically, lowering expectations so that customers end up being blown away. Whether you agree with the premise or not, the example used is must see material. A contestant on the British version of American Idol is a cell phone salesman that dreams of being an opera singer. You can see the judges rolling their eyes and then....
In our world of hyper-competition, keeping expectations low doesn't seem like an obvious strategy for success. Imagine the used car ad, "Come on down, but don't expect too much. Most of our cars are lemons." On the other hand, maybe something like that would be just unique and honest enough to bring them in! For more advice on lowering expectations check out Adam's post.
Id say that talking down expectations works / makes sense if you are going to talk up your business (i.e. what you can do and how wonderful the end product will be). If you do this first, and get it right, then customer issues relating to delivery periods and times can easily go out of the window. If you believe in your product and the customer can see this, then they are much more likely to wait for your services then they are for a competitor!
Chris
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