In todays installment of Monday Marketing Tips, I want to talk about one of, if not, THE easiest way to generate word of mouth referrals for your business; under promise and over deliver! Hands down, by remembering this statement, you can drastically improve your customer relationships, your sales and word of mouth marketing.
Making your customers happy
When your car is in the shop and you are told that it will be ready on Saturday, but you receive a call on Thursday that your car is finished two days early, what is your emotion at that point? If you’re anything like me, it should be happy and very pleased! The same is true for your small business services. Bootstrapping your business by over delivering is the GREATEST way of improving your word of mouth marketing. Once you make that person happy, whenever they talk to another friend or family member, you can bet the bank that they’ll be talking about how you finished early.
Creating a cushion with time
Another great benefit of under promising is that you buy yourself some extra time in case of an emergency. Similar to how I asked earlier if your business can run without you, you never know when the time will come where you just can’t make it to work (or are not able to be in your home office). By adding that extra cushion time, if you complete it early, you’ve made the client happy. If you can’t get it in within your “early time”, you still have the extra cushion to work with and if you send it on time, your client is STILL happy. It’s definitely a win/win situation for you and something you should not overlook, ever.
Hi,
Would you argue that by using this technique your clients may see your estimate as a lack of efficiency and take their business to a competitor who has been open and honest about the deadline?
i.e. If a workshop told me it would be done by Thursday (open and honest) and another told me it would be done Saturday (underpromise) I would do business with the company who stated Thursday.
I totally agree that this is a powerful technique but perhaps only in given situations e.g. previous clients as opposed to new clients who may be shopping around
- JL
hello Justin,
Yes, that could happen. I’ve had it happen to me before. I actually just went through this over the last month. I had a company looking for a website design write me, we talked, I told them it would take 2 weeks to complete (a bigger site then just a blog). They went with a company who said 1 week, and now, 4 1/2 weeks later, their site still isn’t up. I wrote them and have a meeting with them this friday.
So yes, it can definitely cause some loss of sales. I guess it’s just a personal preference
This is a very Japanese technique. Sound weird? Well in Japanese business, they will typically issue low-balled earnings guidance just for the sake of surprising later on and making profit. My thought is that this can work once to twice, but you are better off giving reasonable guidance in the first place. If you keep lowering estimates, people will either pick up on it, or just stop taking you seriously as a businessman. Still, an interesting post
Good to see someone else writing about this. I actually wrote about this a couple months back and your opinion is bang on. Keep up the good work..
I totally agree that this is a powerful technique but perhaps only in given situations. My thought is that this can work once to twice, but you are better off giving reasonable guidance in the first place.