Our clothes dryer stopped working late last week and the part I ordered from GE was not scheduled to arrive until Monday. Having four kids, a functional dryer over the weekend is a must!

So we washed our clothes and, afterward, brought them to a neighbor’s house to dry in her dryer. As my wife was leaving our neighbor’s house she said, “Just give me a call when the dryer stops and I’ll come back and pick them up.”

About an hour later my wife received a call from our neighbor and went over to retrieve the clothes. When she arrived, she found the clothes neatly folded and stacked inside the laundry basket. Wow!

We were delighted by the generosity and thoughtfulness of our neighbor. Our expectation had simply been to borrow her dryer and retrieve a basketful of clothes and yet we were pleasantly surprised as our expectations were exceeded. Our relationship grew stronger and a lasting memory was made.

Now, consider the implications of treating customers in this way. Most companies are in the business of creating promoters—those customers who are the least price-sensitive, have the highest repurchase rates, and are responsible for between 80 and 90 percent of positive referrals to a company or brand. Simply meeting expectations does not produce promoters. Promoters result from consistently exceeding expectations and, when possible, delighting customers!

A great example of a company that consistently exceeds customer expectations is Zappos.com. At Zappos, exceedind customer expectations is the cornerstone of its marketing, preferring to rely on positive referrals and repeat purchases from its legion of promoters rather than expensive ad campaigns. In fact, 75% of Zappos’ sales come from repeat customers. In an October 17, 2008 interview in Advertising Age, Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh said, “We actually take a lot of the money that we would have normally spent on paid advertising and put it back into customer experience. We’ve always stuck with customer service, even when it was not a sexy thing to do.”

Each Zappos new hire—everyone from the chief financial officer to the children’s footwear buyer—is required to go through four weeks of customer-loyalty training. In addition, Zappos offers free delivery, free returns, and a 365-day return policy to demonstrate its commitment to exceptional customer service. It even quietly upgrades the experience by accelerating shipping from four-to-five-day to second-day or next-day, in order to pleasantly surprise customers.

Meeting expectations is predictable, process-focused, and transactional. Exceeding expectations is unexpected, people-focused, and experiential. My wife and I were delighted when our neighbor pleasantly surprised us by exceeding our expectations. Acts of service like this strengthen relationships and create lasting memories. They are what turn neighbors into friends.

By looking for opportunities to take an extra step and pleasantly surprise your customers, you can have a similar effect—turning customers into promoters.

Tags: delight, exceed, expectations, loyalty, meet, promoters, satisfy, Zappos

This entry was posted on Monday, August 10th, 2009 at 10:56 am and is filed under Customer Service, Employee Engagement, Enthusiasm at Work!. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.