Is “Over-Delivering” Always a Good Thing?
Not Necessarily. It depends what exactly you mean by “over-delivering.”
I was with my friend Fred, picking up some mail from his PO box. Amongst his mail was a package of something he had very recently ordered. This box was supposed to arrive in 2-6 weeks, and it actually showed up in 3 days. After realizing what the box was he looked at me and said, “wow, talk about over-delivering.”
He said this in a positive way. When a product is supposed to arrive in 2-6 weeks and instead shows up in 3 days, that’s a classic example of “under-promising and over-delivering,” and anyone would be thrilled with that, right?
Nope.
You see, this reminded me of a situation that happened a few years back. I had ordered a new laptop on a Tuesday, and the delivery time was listed as 1-2 weeks. This worked well for me, as I was going to be away the upcoming weekend, Friday morning until Sunday night. I figured, “great, I can go away, have a good time, and a day or two after I get back I will have a brand new laptop.” I could barely control my glee.
I go away as planned, and when I return on Sunday evening I see not one but two of those little UPS/FedEx (I forget which one, which may show how little I care about their brand differentiation) “delivery attempt sticky note” on my door. Evidently, even though the laptop wasn’t supposed to show up until Tuesday, UPS/FedEx had already made two delivery attempts. Either there was a rip in the space-time continuum, or somebody was very early…
The second note said that there would be a third attempt on Monday, and if I missed that I would have to trek to their office to pick it up myself.
What.
The.
Heck?!?!
It was somehow conceivable that even before Tuesday, the first promised delivery date, the laptop could have received three failed delivery attempts! It was like one of those situations where you receive a bill with a due date that is before the postmark date (yes, this has happened to me). If I had planned my trip so that I returned Monday night, I would have completely missed it.
To make it worse, the 2nd delivery note said the delivery would come “Monday afternoon.” Great. I had something to do Monday afternoon. So my choice at this point was to either rearrange my Monday or plan on getting in the car, driving down to some UPS/FedEx office, standing in line, and receiving my laptop manually. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Fortunately I was able to rearrange my schedule and I sat in my condo Monday afternoon eagerly awaiting my laptop. It’s an interesting thing feeling like a prisoner in your own apartment, afraid to even use the bathroom for fear that that will be the exact moment the delivery guy rings your buzzer and then, convinced you’re not at home, drives off with your merchandise…
Luckily, I was able to suppress my bathroom urges and answer the door when the delivery guy came, and I got my laptop. In fact, I am writing this very blog post on the very laptop, so it all worked out ok.
However, this is absolutely a situation where “over-promising and under-delivering” was not a good thing. At all. I would have been very, very angry if I missed the delivery because the package showed up four days early…
So you can see, “over-delivering” may not always be the right thing to do.
At the end of the day, consider these two principles:
- Do what you say you will do, when you say you will do it, how you say you will do it. If your over-delivering involves you noy doing what you said you would (even if in your mind it’s for the better), it may not be a good thing.
- Deliver great service from the customer’s perspective not your own. If your over-delivering inconveniences the customer, it’s not a good thing.
Do those two things, and you should rarely, if ever, “over-deliver” in a bad way.
About
By Avish Parashar. As the world's only Motivational Improviser, Avish uses techniques from the world of improv comedy to engage, entertain, and educate audiences on ideas around change, creativity, and motivation. Connect with Avish on Google+
2 Responses to “Is “Over-Delivering” Always a Good Thing?”
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haha, this is a great one; very true!
It seems that when the delivery is for something that you have no choice about, they often tell you greatly exaggerated delivery times. They figure, they won’t “lose the sale” by giving a long delivery estimate, so they really over-exaggerate it.
For example, I needed to get the fingerprint test in order to teach. They told me it would take about four weeks to get the results. Actually, people get the results in about two days. They just say “four weeks” to keep people from calling them. However, my employer really needed that report right away. So I had to drive down to the post office every day for weeks to keep seeing if it was there yet! Their office could not even tell me whether it was even sent (Your tax dollars at work.) As it turns out, there was a problem with my test, and they never did send it. If they had just been honest and said, “You’ll probably get it in two days,” I would have known much sooner that something was wrong.
Yes, you make a good point. Sometimes you need a relatively accurate estimate, and one that is too long is not good, because you then have to make some sort of alternate arrangement.
ONE more thing! You talk about sitting in your house, waiting for the delivery, afraid to even use the bathroom… Once I waited for UPS like this. I heard a noise at the door, and FLEW to the door, but they were gone already. They just put the sticky note up without even ringing the doorbell and waiting a single second! You would have to actually be sitting on the front step all day to catch them. I am sure I am not the only one this happens to. They put the note there, because they want you to sign it giving them permission to just leave the expensive item unattended the next day.
Thanks Amy! Those are some great stories and additions as usual. I totally feel your pain on the delivery guy not ringing the doorbell! In fact, today’s post is about that very thing. Was it DHL that was trying to deliver your package?