What happens when your expectations aren’t met?
You get pissed, frustrated, disappointed, and let down. You want to tell the world how you’ve just been wronged and need justice in the public court of Twitter appeals. The problem is you were the one that set the expectations in the first place. Yep, I said it…you are wrong sometimes!
There are countless examples we’ve all seen where someone complains about service from <fill in your favorite cable provider>. Sure they’re frustrated, they’ve set the expectation that their cable will work 100% of the time. The moment that 100% is compromised they’re owed an apology, 3 months service for free, and applause from their followers for sticking it to the man. In reality, expecting flawless service from our cable, mobile, and Internet providers is our fault as we’ve set the expectation beyond what is reasonable.
Technology is intricate and spammers are sneaky
You’re telling me you’ve never had an off day? There are no mistakes in your reports? The moment we let someone else down we wouldn’t want them going on Twitter and telling the world that you totally forgot about an appointment you scheduled a few weeks ago. We’re human and humans make mistakes. Too often we like to point out failures from those around us for fear of having someone point the finger at us.
That’s not to say you can’t get frustrated when someone or something doesn’t work as advertised. We’ve all wanted to punch the monitor from time to time the moment our computers fail. The difference today compared to a few years ago is there’s now a strong Internet presence to share our stories. That can be a good thing when we’re being fair and quite damaging when we’re being reckless.
With social’s popularity we’re now expecting every large brand to be monitoring communication about their company 24/7. Sure, the smart companies have already figured out a way to incorporate customer service or related departments into the social stream but we’re still in the infancy of this new movement. In time, more and more organizations will become proficient in handling customer complaints, questions, and inquiries.
Expectations get miscommunicated all the time. We thought a prospect was going to call us back by the end of the week yet they never agreed to that, it was just assumed. You thought your wife was going to pick up the pizza because she works next door to the pizza joint…but you never had the conversation. Whenever you find these situations arise, ask yourself if the expectations were: communicated, agreed upon, and understood by all parties involved.
So what are some of the takeaways from this post?
- Almost nothing works 100% of the time
- People like attention and complaining garners attention
- The larger the brand, the more we expect perfection
- We’re perfect
What are your thoughts on expectations? Do you think that we sometimes set expectations that our favorite brands can’t deliver on? I’d love to hear your feedback.
