Tweet

Under Promise and Over Deliver

Guest post by: Tom Lemanski

Article Overview: A curious change has occurred in air travel in recent years. No, I'm not thinking about enhanced security or the charges for checking bags. It's the air lines' scheduling. You can now occasionally arrive as much as 30 minutes early for routine flight. That never happened in years past. So what's up? Have the cash strapped airlines somehow become more efficient? Not exactly. They have figured out a way to be more effective. You might be able to apply their tactic for your business.

Under Promise and Over Deliver

A curious change has occurred in air travel in recent years. No, I'm not thinking about enhanced security or the charges for checking bags. It's the air lines' scheduling. You can now occasionally arrive as much as 30 minutes early for routine flight. That never happened in years past. So what's up? Have the cash strapped airlines somehow become more efficient? Not exactly. They have figured out a way to be more effective.

Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

Efficiency is about doing things right. Effectiveness is about doing the right things. With all years of the airline efficiency efforts there remain elements that are out of their control like weather and traffic patterns. However by focusing on what they can control: their stated arrival time, they are able to make promises to their customers that less likely to be broken.

Flying Smarter

The airline's secret to better on-time performance is to simply change the rules to make it easier to be on-time. If you allow yourself two hours for a flight that optimally takes an hour and 15 minutes, you can significantly reduce your likelihood of being late. And so they under promise and occasionally over deliver. Over delivering takes the form of being 30 minutes ahead of schedule. While this is not a breakthrough technical innovation. But who cares? Air travelers already expect to wait for security measures and baggage to be processed. With a more reliable schedule, we're more frequently satisfied.

Have you been over promising?

Can you take a lesson from the airlines? What challenging promises have you been making to your customers? Is it possible to tweak them to be more attainable? Might your customers be happier with less efficiency and more effectiveness?

Related Articles
  Proposals in a Jiff
  Reap Rewards with the Right Reputation
  Making a Promise to Your Business
  Creating a Culture and Brand That Makes and Actually Keeps Brand Promises
  Don\'t Promise Too Much
  5 Impeccable Ways to Grow Your Business
  Do You Over Promise and Under Deliver
  If you don’t take care of your employees… they won’t take care of your customers
  5 Branding Tips for Creating a Bold Small Business Promise
  Execution - Kill IT!
  The Secret to Standing Out
  Exceeding customers’ expectations?
  Establishing Trust – How to Build Relationships and Make Them Work For You
  The Truth About Under Promising and Over Delivering
  Is Your Brand Putting People to Sleep?
  Dont Underestimate the Power of Customer Service
  Fail in Favor of the Customer
  Building a Leadership Team - Part 2
  Operationalizing the Brand - Aligning Promise with Reality
  5 Common Mistakes That New Leaders Make

Article Tags: airline scheduling tactic



Related Forum Posts
Re: eBlogging 101: Getting Your Internet Business To Stand Out F - Hi Tyrone, Good to see you back on the forum. I had not heard of the "UPOD" acronym before (Under Promise, Over Deliver). That is a very good guideline. Don't use "promises" as personal challenges to do better - just in case unanticipated events prevent you from fulfilling the promises you make.
Re: Best incentive to offer employees - Promise then patnership if they work diligently for a number of years.
Quote of the Day - ?"I've never met a successful entrepreneu - ?"I've never met a successful entrepreneur that didn't simply outwork all others. Talent is important, but the work ethic is a necessity." - Adam Braun (Pencils Of Promise)
Write a great headline - Whether it's online or on paper, I think a great headline (with a good picture if possible) can draw a reader into the body copy. In "The Copywriter's Handbook", Robert Bly says "On average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy...The best headlines appeal to people's self-interest, or give news...Your headline can perform four different tasks: 1. Get attention. 2. Select the audience. 3. Deliver a complete message. 4. Draw the reader into the body copy." (pg. 15 & 16). Personally, I only read Yahoo! or online news if there's a captivating headline.
eBlogging 101: Getting Your Internet Business To Stand Out F - Since the inception of eCommerce websites there have been a growing number of brick and mortar businesses expanding their sales online. With this growing trend it means more competition and less market share. I have mentioned that eBlogs are becoming more popular as well (an integration of an eCommerce shop with a blog) and I spoke more about it in the post I wrote: e-Commerce With Integrated Blog (e-Blogging). The question Internet businesses face is: how do you stand out from the crowd? Design and User Friendliness This is almost too obvious but I still see poorly designed websites lacking user friendliness and easy to use navigations. A well designed website is easy to use, looks professional and instils confidence in potential customers. This reassures them that they can safely buy on your website knowing their products or services will be delivered on time. Furthermore a professional website conveys high quality and strong branding, just how you would attend a business meeting in a proper suit and not a pair of Billabong shorts. Ease of use of your website is equally important. If a potential customer can not navigate through your website easily and find the information they are looking for, they will go to the next website on the list. It is very easy to lose a sale because of poorly designed navigations. One way to test the ease of use of your website is to watch friends and family while they complete a few simple task of purchasing and finding specific information. A few things to observe are: * Do they have to keep backtracking through the website? * Can they find what they are looking for quickly? * Can they easily click on images to enlarge the product? * Does the search function work and return the appropriate results? * Are the images of high quality without sacrificing time to load the website? * Is it easy to add items to the shopping cart? * Is the checkout easy to use? Additionally, ask them for their feedback and thank them for their time. Be sure to take these findings and implement them to your website. Once you get this right, you will have a higher conversion rate. Show Your Testimonials Testimonials is a powerful tool for any Internet business. In the past I’ve utilised this tool to promote and market my products for Dragonboating and it increased my sales by two fold simply by having them displayed. Prospective customers will also feel confident to purchase from you because they see positive feedback from others. With the right mix of testimonials including website’s easy of use, quality of product, speed of delivery and fast resolution of issues, it will cover all aspects of the buying process for a prospective customer. So next time when a customer receives their product, follow up with them 7 days later and ask them to write a testimonial for your website. Help Customers Find Your Delivery And Returns Information It’s important to show a link to your delivery and returns page which should be displayed prominently on your website. Most customers want to know whether or not you can deliver to their location, how much it will cost them and how you will handle returns if there is a problem. I have had customers tell me how frustrating it is to find the cost of delivery at the end of the check out page, which is why I have it clear displayed on the website. It shows you are transparent and operate with integrity. This builds stronger trust with your customers as well. They will thank you later in repeat and referral business. Extra eBlogging Tips With these basic principals in place, your eBlog should start appealing to more customers. We want to give them that extra incentive for them to buy from you because you will be competing with other popular websites in the marketplace. eblogging101_2Offer Customers To Join Your Loyalty Program: A great way to attract more customers and to keep them coming back for more is to encourage them to be part of your loyalty program. In the past I have set up e-Commerce websites with an option to reward them with 1 point for every dollar they spend. The more points they accumulate, the more chances of earning a nice reward. Your customer will be able to exchange their points for a new gadget - an iPod for example or a product in your range. Reward Purchases: You can reward customers who come back and order from you by giving them a discount on their next order. The more purchases they make, the more discounts they receive. It encourages them to purchase from you every time. Bulk Discounts: If you sell products that people buy in large quantities consider offering a bulk discount rate. It’s a great way to encourage larger orders and higher turnover of product for your Internet business. We love to think that we have saved money, even though we have spent twice as much to get that discount. Aldi, the supermarket chain is a classic example of buy in bulk and save, which encourages shoppers to spend more. The UPOD principle (Under Promise, Over Deliver): This is a principle I practise all the time in my businesses. Let’s say you offer normal delivery to deliver a product, which takes between 3 - 5 days to receive. What if you sent the product overnight via courier and it arrived the next day. Would your customer be ecstatic to receive their product earlier than expected? Of course they would! They would refer it to their friends and family because of fast delivery and good customer service. This is the under promise and over deliver (UPOD) principle that you can apply in your Internet business. There are a lot of similarities between a brick and mortar business compared to an online business. Businesses that offer good products and excellent customer service are able to capture market share much faster with smarter techniques. They will be the businesses that succeed and do well online. Gone are the days where you just put an eBlog website and hope for the best. You need to implement strategies and be smart to attract good quality customers for your Internet business, then you will reap the rewards. Tyrone Shum eBlogging 101


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

How To Be Happy at Work? Acknowledge Yourself

African Technology Development

Why Use an Advertising Agency

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.