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With the ability to instantly share information at the push of a button it has never been more important in business to exceed the expectations of your partners and customers.
4.5 min read
By exceeding the expectations, you are securing a more positive experience for those you work with which will help you with reviews encouraging new custom and renewals when it comes to that time in the relationship to go around again.
Getting the balance correct between exceeding expectations and underselling your services is an artform and you don’t want to be doubling your work load and costing your business time and money.
Click here to find out what to look for in a modern business partnership.
So, we’ve put together our top tips on how best to approach a ‘win-win’ exceeding expectations approach for those you enter into business with (win for your stakeholder and win for you).
Before you start
1. Under promise, over deliver
2. Motivate your team
Once work is underway
3. Do what’s best for your partner
4. Communication is key
5. Collect feedback
The Xtra Mile touch
6. Connect
Before you start
1. Under promise, over deliver
It’s important we make it clear what we are saying. We’re not saying hold back on an expected service, that could be dangerous and lose you an agreement.
What we are saying is develop a partnership service plan that contains extra elements which will help you over deliver. The ideas in this blog have been added because they will save you time and money or give you a USP with your stakeholder.
Take inspiration from this blog or dig deep into your own creativity and flesh out several great touches that will give you the edge your plan needs to go beyond expectations.
2. Motivate your team
If you have a team that will be responsible for delivering your services for your new partner, then make sure they are motivated. Make them a part of the process and give them ownership of the activities.
Assign roles, responsibilities and accountability. Find out how they feel about the relationship and let them develop the ‘delivery service plan’ with all the exceeding expectations touches added.
Let them know they will be responsible for reviewing the plan at the end of the process with a need for continual improvement and finally impressing upon them they are in the business of making ‘a working relationship’ and not just selling.
Once work is underway
Once you have secured the partnership and work is underway here are several tips to help you over deliver.
3. Do what’s best for your partner
The reason you will enter the partnership is because you’re an expert in your field. Use your experience and skills to offer advice to your partner where you can.
This can be extremely powerful when you spot a problem on the horizon, so be proactive in finding both improvements and solutions.
4. Communication is key
In any relationship (personal or professional) the key to success will always be communication.
Actively encourage the communication process between organisations. Identify who needs to be engaged with, through to who just needs to be informed. Clear clean lines of responsibility between the two teams will help avoid confusion and mistakes.
Actively listen as a case of best practice. A great way of proving this is by following all meetings with an email summarising all the points made and what actions need to be followed up including who is responsible for what.
Keeping all of the information across an entire relationship could be key to success in being able to track all information and recall it for development purposes. Consider using a CRM system that will allow you to track and store all of the information you need.
5.Collect feedback
Reviewing and researching you customers/partners is a great way to make improvements in your systems and show your partners you care and are actively looking to make improvements.
You can do this by listing all the touch points where your services come together and ask for feedback on how the experience was for them.
Implementing digital survey software such as Survey Monkey could be a really cost-effective way to gain great feedback to improve your service.
The Xtra Mile touch
6. Connect
Now following all the service level operational activities, it will also help to connect on a personal level. Remember we said this is about creating relationships and not selling.
It’s important you keep the relationship professional and understand what the partner expects and is comfortable with.
Make a note of important dates like birthdays and names of family members. Sending celebration messages can go a long way to them feeling like they have received the personal touch from you and your company.
Conclusion
It’s important that relationships are worked at and a partner that consistently goes the Xtra Mile by exceeding expectations is one that is valued, needed and remembered.
