Why isn’t it the goal of every vendor to exceed expectations?

We’ve all heard that cliché, “under promise, over deliver”, right? The idea behind this cliché is that customer satisfaction is highest when their expectations are exceeded. So, why then isn’t it the stated goal of every vendor, solution provider, out there to exceed their customers’ expectations? Why doesn’t every company add “Exceed their customers’ expectations” to their mission statement?

Here’s one reason why, because these companies don’t get it. They are so focused on growing their business that they overlook the correlation between exceeding expectations and the growth that will come with it. When you look at companies that are revolutionizing business and revolutionizing marketplaces, you’ll see how much effort they put into exceeding their customers’ expectations. Companies like Tesla, Apple, Disney, or in the B2B world, Slack, Salesforce.com, all exceed their customers’ expectations, but even they overlook that as part of their mission statement. Here’s a list of top companies mission statements.

Not one of them mentions “exceed customers’ expectations”. Now these are all great companies, but we would challenge them about their mission statements and operations if they aren’t setting goals to exceed expectations. And if that specific directive isn’t in their mission statement, then where is it in their company culture? These are all great companies and great brands, but you wonder how much better they could be if they stated as their mission to exceed their customers’ expectations.

At GCS, our mission statement is the following, “To provide communication service providers with the tools they need to maximize the performance of their interconnect voice business and exceed their expectations of how our tools work, the kind of support we provide, the kind of company we are, and the performance of their interconnect business”.

That’s our mission!