I'll Call You Back.

Here's a peek behind my process. It's been a habit for me to write down conversations I have with friends, colleagues, customers, and prospects. Not in a diary sense, but in a "this was an important insight, I may need to revisit it" sense. I've been using Evernote as my repository for this for well over a decade and there's a LOT of stuff in there.

Since I started this newsletter I got in the habit of creating Draft Issues and jotting some notes about what I'd want to write about, enriched by some of the other notes I've saved over the years. About half of the newsletters so far have come from fleshing out a draft I already had started. The other half are driven by my recency bias to what happened to me this week.

That's where this one comes from. I'm not calling anyone out specifically, but if you see yourself in this issue, that's on you. 🙂

This week, I had a bunch of people say "I’ll call you back." Only one did.

My expectation was if you send that message, I would hear back from you after you finished what you were currently doing. At most, later that day. Would you think the same? Their expectation may have been they wanted to acknowledge that they knew I called and would eventually get back to me. That's a problem for both of us.

If you don't set expectations, other people will set them for you. And you may not like them and you will likely fail to meet them.

This is not to call anybody out. We're all busy and we have lots of things in our lives which are complicated. My purpose here is to make our lives easier — and to help those we interact with, too.

This is about setting, managing, and meeting expectations.

We've been in the waiting room at a doctor's office watching the minutes slip past our appointment time. Years ago I remember sitting in a waiting room for an appointment. When I finally got to see the doctor, the first words out of her mouth were something I will never forget. She said: "Thank you for waiting. I had an emergency come in and it took some time. I know if you were the emergency you'd like me to do the same for you."

I was ready to be angry and instead I had a higher opinion of her. She set an expectation for me that she cares about her patients by recognizing that I did have to wait, and an expectation that I would get the attention I required if I was the one with an emergency.

My expectation was she would be insensitive to my experience. She reset it.

The Secret to Better Customer Experience is...

...setting, managing, and meeting expectations.

There are a lot of business terms to describe ways to codify this. You can call it brand promise or something more technical like service level agreement (SLA). Whatever you call it, how you set expectations has a huge impact on customer experience.

Waiting on hold for a service provider borders on cliché. Messages like "your call is important to us, please stand by" and "we're experiencing higher than normal call volume" really don't come across as honest or sincere. If my call is that important, why am I on hold so long? If every time I call you tell me you are experiencing higher than normal call volume, maybe you need to reset your definition of normal.

Let's take two scenarios:

• Scenario 1: You call your vendor and get put on hold. 10 minutes go by. 20 minutes go by. You don't know how much longer you'll wait and your stress and anger rise with each passing minute. 30 minutes. 40 minutes. When they finally pick up you're much less happy than when you first called. They resolve your problem but you hang up feeling less than satisfied.

• Scenario 2: You call your vendor and the message says "there is a 40 minute wait. Would you like to hold or have us call you back?" You choose the call-back. 40 minutes later your phone rings and they resolve your problem. You waited the same amount of time but it's very likely you are much more satisfied when you hang up.

The uncertainty is the problem.

Years ago I did an IT audit for a client. When I spoke with the end-users, the biggest complaint I got was not knowing when a problem was going to be solved. It wasn't about the speed. It was about uncertainty.

People Don't Have User Manuals

As much as we wish it were true, we don't come with user manuals. And trying to figure out how to work with people is a guessing game that often doesn't end well. We can make our lives better by writing ones for ourselves and sharing them with others. And we reinforce their value by doing what we say.

If you say "I'll call you back" -- call them back. Even better, say "I'll call you back in an hour" or "I'll call you back tomorrow." And then do it." And then do it. And if you can't meet the expectation you set, communicate that too!

Berkson's Bits

ChatGPT cracked me up this week.

Based on my skin type (and loss of hair) I need to make sure I get good coverage when I'm walking outside on a sunny day. While I prefer my trusty Mets baseball cap, I really should be wearing something that gives me more all-around coverage. I have a floppy beige bucket hat that does the job, but I feel like it looks, well, goofy.

I had heard that ChatGPT can now help you find products to buy.

My prompt:

I need a hat to wear when I'm doing my daily walk in the park. Nothing too goofy but gives me 360 degree coverage because I need to limit my exposure to the sun

Not only did it give me a response, it created a "Goofy Meter" for me. And explained the rating!

The response: "Got it — you're not worried about flashiness or standing out stylishly, you just don't want to look goofy or like you're about to go fly-fishing in full safari gear.

Here are some solid non-goofy, 360-degree sun protection hats for men that balance function and normalcy😀 

What I'm Listening To/Watching

Jay Shetty: How to Set Boundaries Without Guilt (You Are NOT Responsible for Their Feelings)

I got a nice dose of Jay Shetty this week. I am a recovering people pleaser and this really hit the spot. It also aligns well with the main topic this week. Another important aspect of customer experience is you can't control every other experience that person has had that day, that week, or even that month which influences how they experience or how they interact with you. Even more reason to proactively set, meet, and manage expectations.

Clear boundaries are really just another way of setting expectations — for yourself and others.

There's a lot more to explore when it comes to communications and interpersonal activities. I do often find myself coming back to the basic premise of setting and managing expectations. It isn’t just professional — it’s a leadership skill. If you have any great tips for doing that, I'd love to hear them.

Looking forward to continuing the conversation...

Alan