Everyone has expectations. When I go into a store,
no matter what kind of store that is, I’m expecting certain things. These expectations are rarely anything amazing or unique. If I ask a question I expect that someone will be able to help answer whatever it is. I expect the prices will be reasonable, and I expect that things will be laid out in an easy enough manner to understand.
When I get an advertisement in the mail or see a poster on the wall I expect that it will provide me with some information about a sale or product release or something similar. These are all things I expect, and the companies that get the most attention are the ones who can go beyond my expectations.
These are the companies that provide me with something beyond what I thought they were going to do, and by doing so stand out in my mind. They don’t just answer my question by see if I have any others and do everything they can to help me through the buying process. They go above and beyond, as the expression goes.
This is the best way to get a person’s interest and start down the best possible path with them. Everyone is going to have certain expectations that are going to be relatively easy to meet.
You can go into marketing knowing what type of expectations these are by looking at what’s been done before you. People base their expectations off of what other companies have done.
Once you know the expectations do your best to improve on them. Everything about your marketing should be focused on that. Every kind of color printing you get done should be based on the idea of giving people the unexpected.
Maybe that’s a completely different type of advertisement, or maybe it has to do with postcards that have coupons attached to them. Sent out a greeting card rather than a postcard, or put up a lot of posters in those perfect locations no other company is using.
Going beyond color printing, give people the best service possible. Give them the kind of service they want but don’t really expect. Surprise them with just how considerate and caring your company is.
By no means am I able to list off everything you could do, or even what you should do. After all, this has to be based on the expectations of your customers. I don’t know what those expectations are, and if you don’t know them either, get to work finding out.
You can’t even begin to go beyond them if you don’t know what you’re trying to go beyond. But what you do need to know is that your customers do expect something, and you need to give them the unexpected.
