Behavioral Influence Technique - Under Promise Over Deliver

So Mike Michalowicz is the entrepreneur behind 3 multimillion-dollar companies and, as we know, the author of "The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur." He's globally recognized as a keynote speaker on entrepreneurship. He's the president of a behavioral web optimization firm called Obsidian Launch, small business communi— communist.

So it's a little bit awkward to be called a communist. Uh, anyone starting to speak in front of me? With different expectations, our experience changes dramatically. And here's the rule, and you already know this: under-promise and over-deliver. Have you ever experienced this one? You call a friend of yours and you say, "Hey, I want to meet with you today at 2 o'clock." "Okay, of course I'll be there." What happens at 2 o'clock? Ring! I'm running late. Yeah, surprise, you're running late. Now what happens at 2:15? Nothing. Your phone doesn't even ring this time, and you're sitting there like, oh my God. And at 2:25, they come rushing in. Oh my God. You're pissed. You're pissed because they promised to be there at 2:00, and they got there at 2:25, and you're upset because they messed with you. Now consider that same scenario if we kind of change it around. They call you now at 10:00 in the morning and say, There's no way in hell I'm going to get there at 2 o'clock. Why don't we meet at 2:30? Is that cool with you? And you'll experience what I call the tinge. In that moment, you'll say, "Oh, they're changing on me." But generally, a tinge is a very short moment because you're like, "Well, they gave me advance notice. I can change my schedule. 2:30 works. Cool. I'll see you at 2:30." They, knowing that they're habitually late, go through then their whole thing. They try to get there at 2:00. Influenza, lava, ah! They get there. They get there at 2:25. You come walking in at 2:30. They're sitting there and they hand you a hot Frappuccino, and you're like, "They're awesome. They are awesome." And the only thing that's— listen, both people got there exact same time, 2:25, but the only thing that's changed was the expectation set for you. Set an expectation with your customers and deliver beyond that, and they will be madly in love with you. Anybody ever buy from Zappos? You did. Okay, when you bought from Zappos, what would you buy? A pair of shoes? That's all they sold. First pair of Uggs. Oh, an Ugg purchase, nice. So when you bought your first pair of Uggs from Zappos, do you remember how long they said it would take to get to you when you ordered the shoes? 3 to 4 days. 3 to 4 days. And then how long did it really take?

Got them the next day.

They said it would take 3 to 4 days, and Zappos got it there the next day. Surprise! Zappos is a billion-dollar company with one simple strategy: under-promise, over-deliver, and repeat. See, what Zappos would do is they were competing at the time against Foot Locker. Foot Locker was trying to break into the online scene. They were a big mall kind of thing, right? And what Foot Locker was doing was saying, okay, when a customer orders the new UGG shoes, We are going to get it there within 1 day. So you order it and it will say overnight delivery. You're going to have your shoes there. Zappos, in turn though, when you order from Zappos, they say it would take 3 to 5 business days to get there. Now, both of them were shipping overnight. The problem is sometimes there is an earthquake or in Japan that actually slowed down the postal system or there's a strike in somewhere and— or there's snow and the UPS guy can't make it to someone's door the next morning. Sometimes packages don't get delivered. Now, it's only like 3% of the time. But 3% of the time, Foot Locker was really disappointing its customers. Zappos, on the other hand, said it would take 3 to 5 business days. They would every time FedEx it overnight. Shoes would show up, you would come in, you'd be like, "Oh, my shoes are here early! This is awesome! This is like a gift from God! Amazing!" 3% of the time, Zappos would take 2 days to get there because they have the same UPS guy getting on the same truck that broke down or stuck in the snow. And it still wowed us because now the shoes were here at our place in 2 days. They promised 3 to 5, it's here the second day. And Zappos is awesome! And that's all they did. So in your business, how can you under-promise and over-deliver? Another example, my computer crime company, my computer crime, I said, yes, when I was stealing from people. Awkward! He's a communist and a criminal. So my computer forensics company, that was a front for my computer crime company. We— the industry is pretty crazy. So when there is a crime that's breaking down or Christie Brinkley is going through a divorce or something, it's not like, "Hey, we'll get to you in 3 weeks from now." It's always a panic situation. We got to rush out. We have to capture evidence. They call it bag and tag. Take evidence and start analyzing computers. Well, our competition would promise usually 1-hour response times. You call them, within an hour they're in mode, in transport to get to you. That was like theoretically impossible. So I don't know how they were promising it. And there was a lot of pressure in the industry to be 45-minute response times or half hour to be better. But instead, my company, we said we're going to be 24-hour response. And yes, customers will get the tinge when they hear that. You know, someone will call and say, "We have a panic situation. We need you out here." And we'll say, "Well, within 24 hours we'll have someone on location." And they're like, "Ooh, but I have an emergency." So we were ready for the tinge. We'd say, "Well, here's what you can do to hold over. Secure the room, do this and this and this, and it's all legal, it's all legit. This is how you proceed, and we'll be there." Then I would hang up the phone, I'd count to 10, because it was just me when I was starting up, and I'd dial back and say, "Great news! I just spoke with the entire service department," myself, We're dispatching within 5 minutes. And they'd be like, oh my God, you guys are incredible. I can't believe you did this for me. I'm like, no problem. No problem. I get into my vet and drive out. It was a Chevette too. And that wowed people. My company got the reputation, and why we got the Nron trial, is we were the fastest response a company in existence. The great irony is we weren't. Sometimes it did take us 2 or 4 hours because we didn't have another project or we couldn't coordinate people fast enough, but we always beat the expectation we set. So we were just deemed as the fastest response company out there, and we got lots of business because of it. So in your business, where can you do under-promise, over-deliver? Where can you manage your clients' expectations, maybe to the point of a little tinge and then just blow away their minds. They will start talking about you just like they did with my company, just like they did with Zappos, and be like, "This company is the best in the world," and customers will flock to you. Thank you very, very much.