The Bar Is So Low

I’m surprised if I get a call back. Or a text. Or an email reply. Anything.

Even though I’m the customer, my assumption is that I’ll be the one needing to follow up.

So I’m constantly setting reminders for myself to do exactly that.

Otherwise, more often than not, nothing happens. Things seemingly fall through the cracks.

People either don’t care, don’t have a process to stay on top of things, or both.

I’m honestly shocked when someone simply gets back to me.

Or smiles when taking my order. Or holds the door for me.

My expectations are so low.

Take my money (or don’t)

Not that we need an example, but here’s one anyway.

I’m in the market for a car. So I emailed three separate dealerships.

Hey [NAME],

What’s the status of the 2025 G 63 timing, MSRP, dealer pricing, your allocations, build timing, etc.?

Thanks for the help.

One dealership emailed me back, but didn’t answer my questions.

The other two didn’t reply, so I sent a follow-up email.

One of them eventually replied and promised a PDF ordering guide, but never sent it.

The third dealership never emailed me at all.

Who’s selling who here? Geez. I feel like I’m bothering them with my interest.

By the way, I was asking about one of the most expensive (and presumably profitable) cars they sell.

If that doesn’t get their attention, what will?!

Lip service isn’t service

I’m tempted to list a bunch of other recent examples. I have plenty. I’m sure you do, too. But what’s the point?

This is what we’re all used to. It’s the new normal.

But I still don’t understand it.

If nothing else, think about the money those three dealerships are spending on marketing to reach customers like me.

Yet when I voluntarily come knocking on their doors, nobody seems to care enough to answer and let me in.

All of them say that they care about providing exceptional customer service, but they don’t deliver it.

And luck doesn’t scale

Exceeding (or even just meeting) expectations is what makes a business successful.

I’ve seen this firsthand at Forge3, my previous company. Not only did we do what we said, but we did it better and faster than people expected.

In a world filled with disappointment and missed expectations, we did the opposite.

And we were different because of this. We overdelivered. We raised the bar.

So why don’t most businesses do this then?

To me, they either don’t have the right process in place or don’t have the right systems and people to execute the process.

Build it like you mean it

I’ve found that the best way to consistently exceed expectations at scale is to build a process for it.

That way, it’s not left up to any individual team member to be exceptional. Instead, we build the process and “machine” to be exceptional. The people on the team execute and deliver it.

Practically, we can break it down into three building blocks.

Build (understand, design process, deploy)

• Understand the experience we’re trying to deliver, design and document a process around it, and deploy it.

Maintain (manage, report, understand)

• Manage the systems and people delivering what we built, report on the results, and understand what’s working and what’s not.

Refine (adapt, change, repeat)

• Adapt and change the process, systems, and/or people to improve the experience we’re trying to deliver. Repeat the steps above.

Talk is cheap, execution is priceless

When it comes to business, I spend very little time thinking or worrying about competitors.

It’s not about them. It’s about us. More specifically, it’s about our ability to execute consistently.

And the only way to do that is to work on it, intentionally, over time.

Most businesses just don’t do that.