SUCCESS DEALING WITH THE EXPECTATION GAP

My first mentor in the business world, Rusty Hampton, then the President and CEO of Grantree Furniture Rental, taught me something that I later considered one of my life’s epiphanies. He very was instrumental in helping guide me to success. There have been, I would say approximately two dozen or so real epiphanies throughout my life that I considered life changing and this lesson was one of them.

Rusty owned a furniture store in a small town of about 10 to 15,000 people. But in this small market, Rusty was named the furniture executive of the year based on the stores sales figures. He was able to sell more furniture per capita than any other member of the National Retail Furniture Association in that particular year.

This was no easy task, but the more I got to know Rusty, the more I realized how he could accomplish this feat and many more as time went on. My epiphany actually started when he told me a little story about when he owned that small furniture store. It was the slow season and a slow day, so he decided he would have one of his employees work in the storeroom/basement of the store. He took the employee down to the storeroom, which was a shambles and asked him to thoroughly clean and organize it even if it took all day.

At the end of the day Rusty accompanied the employee back down to the storeroom after the employee stated he had completed the job. Rusty was amazed at how the room didn’t seem to look much different than when he had sent the employee to clean and organize it. At first he was upset, but it was quitting time so he sent the employee home, which gave Rusty some time to organize his thoughts about what had happened that day. But, overall the day had not been a success.

Well the next day he accompanied the same employee to the same storeroom. This time he tried something new. The previous night he had written a list of exactly what he wanted done in the storeroom on the following day. He left the employee and the list in the storeroom and went back upstairs. Later that afternoon, the employee told Rusty that he had completed the cleaning and organizing of the storeroom. So, Rusty accompanied the employee back down to the storeroom. Sure enough, the room was absolutely perfectly clean and organized meeting with Rusty's expectations. Now that was overcoming adversity and turning it into a success.

So, what was the difference on that first and second day, the employee had a thorough idea of exactly was Rusty’s expectations for the room where. And, so we go through life believing that everyone whose doesn’t share our self-imposed, life learned expectations is simply not a failure in our eyes. When, in fact, each of us has a different set of expectations based on our personality, lives and experiences. Rusty’s employee didn’t do anything wrong. As a matter of fact, Rusty had to look back at himself and ask why he had not made his expectations more clear on the first day to obtain the success that he wanted.

Rusty subsequently told me, “Most problems between people are the result of gaps in expectations.”

Relationships with clients are no different. If you have what you believe is a satisfied client and one day you discover they are no longer doing business with you, it may well be that you have not met their expectations and yet they never let you know what their expectations where in the first place. In order to be a success in business, you need to find out exactly what your clients expectations really are and then exceed them. Of course, sometimes you may fully understand a client's expectations and still not fulfill them.

Most importantly:

Did your client specify exactly what their expectations were?

Did the person your client gave their expectations to thoroughly understand those expectations?

If both of the above were met, your mutual goal should be to obtain both of your expectations.

If your client fails to give you thorough expectations, you will surely fail at meeting them and end up with a disillusioned client who may go elsewhere without even giving you the opportunity to meet those expectations.

The following is a real, cute story exemplifying the importance of a business relationship and expectations. I had a client that told me in my initial meeting with him that his expectation each Christmas was a large bottle of quality Vodka. We had a wonderful relationship for many years. But, one year we were giving all of our clients a somewhat expensive gift, certainly much more than a bottle of Vodka. So, quite by accident, the bottle of Vodka slipped my mind. Well in January, we still had not received a any business from this client, so I gave him a call. Cutting to the chase, he stated since he didn't get his bottle of Vodka, we would never be receiving any business from him again. He kept his promise. We never received business from him again. Who would have really thought that our business relationship was really based on one bottle of Vodka? I obviously did not have a clear understanding of the importance of his ultimate expectation.

It’s only through clear communications that the gaps in expectations can be eliminated. Think of some areas where you might be experiencing gaps in expectations. The most important thing is to identify the gaps and then begin thinking about ways to eliminate them. Remember that you can't be a success at closing all of the expectation gaps. Your expectations must me reasonable with the person with whom you are working.

Having said all of the above, you still need to accept or move away from people who simply do not have the ability to live up any level of expectation that would be acceptable to you. These people can be the biggest level of frustration of all. If they are not a fit, it is time they left, or, you learn to live within their expectations. Who says your expectations are the right ones anyway?