By Hank Marquis

Debunking the Myth of Over Servicing​ Customers

Image Credit: pexels.com/@thatguycraig000

You can only exceed customer expectations by doing what you agreed to do and treating customers with dignity and respect as you do so!

We have all heard about the importance of service. You have probably had your own management telling you the need to “go above and beyond the call of duty” to give “110%” and “over-deliver” to “exceed customer expectations” and establish “customer delight.”

That sounds good, and I bet you want some of it too! But what does this actually mean in an IT context? How does one actually measure it? If you can’t measure it, I am certain you cannot get it.

100% of a day is 24 hours, so if I am going to give 110%, where do the extra 2.4 hours come from? And while we're on the topic, why should anyone ever “over-deliver” on anything anyway?

Here's an example. The last time I bought a car, I was thrilled with it.

The salesperson didn’t over-deliver – I didn’t get a free upgrade to the next model, a free leather interior, unlimited gas for life, or anything beyond what I purchased. Nor did I expect it. They did everything they agreed to do for me and delivered exactly what they said they would deliver, and they did so with courtesy and respect. I got what I paid for and was happy, as was my car dealer, win-win.

Contrary to what you might expect, the result of “over-servicing the customer” is usually an IT organization in chaos – one lacking in quality, unaligned with business, inefficient, and costing too much.

Above And Beyond

Think about it. You sell two products, called service “A” and service “B.” “A” has a sub-second response time, 99.999% availability, and 1 hour resolution time. “B” has a 5 to 10-second response time, 98.5% availability, and 24-hour resolution time.

If you deliver “A” quality for “B” prices, you will soon go out of business because it costs a lot more to deliver service “A” than “B.” Yet this is just how IT operates most of the time! Over-servicing the customer is often a code phrase that means the organization cannot deliver the required services as defined. Hence, they treat every single incident or problem as a top priority.

Why Over Delivering is Bad

So just why does the average IT department almost always have “over-deliver” and “over-servicing” as a goal? It is because they don’t have a clear vision of what they should be doing and thus cannot communicate to the customer what they should be getting. This is compounded by a lack of financial understanding of the costs of sustaining their services.

There are three reasons why this is wrong:

1. You undermine yourself. If you sell two products, “A” and “B,” as mentioned before, and you always offer “A” quality regardless of what the customer purchased, you won't sell a lot of “A” after a while. Customers are astute. They will learn that you give them “A” service for “B” price, so why should they pay you for “A” – soon, “A” stops selling.
2. You can’t afford it. You are not budgeted or staffed to deliver “A” to all customers. Still, soon you have to because you have established an expectation, and due to adaptation, now the customers think they are entitled to “A” service regardless of what they purchased.
3. It’s unfair to IT staff. Essentially, the “110%” mentality requires every worker to operate at full capacity. This is like running a car at the red line every time you drive. We all know this car won’t last.

What Customers Really Want

Employee and customers seldom want you to over-deliver. They want what they need, which is what you promised, or they purchased, and want to be treated with respect and dignity.

No reasonable person expects or demands more than that. But since so few organizations actually do what they say they will do, customers' expectations are seldom met. This results in customer expectations which are set low. Thus, the customer expects to be disappointed.

So how do you meet customer expectations without exceeding your budget? To “exceed customer expectations,” you really need to do what you said you would do, nothing more and nothing less. Think about the last time you sat down to eat at a restaurant, and the food and the service were excellent (as you expected.) Were you “over-serviced,” or were your expectations simply met?

In a climate where mediocrity reigns supreme, and most decisions are on cost instead of quality, the surest way to exceed customer expectations is to perform as advertised. This requires establishing levels of service, methods for controlling service costs, and providing the service with professionalism and as agreed upon.

Find out what your employees need. Ask them. They'll show you what they need and why. Understand how your company makes money.

So, the next time you hear about “over-servicing the customers,” think about what that really means. The only way you can exceed customer expectations is by doing what you agreed to do and doing so with dignity and respect!

That's what I think. What do you think?

Please comment or reach out and let me know what you think, I'd love to talk with you!

Best,
Hank

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