Managing Wait Times and Expectations

Marion David Poff

Marion David Poff

Joined
Oct 8, 1998
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Hey guys,

I think I need to come to the water cooler, and get some insight from you all.

I have been offering custom sheaths for a time now... And, it seems like the biggest issue I have encountered is managing peoples expectations when it comes to how long it will take, or why I missed my estimated date, and that sort of thing.

With you all, what do you do to make this part of the process as painless for you and the customer?

Thank you,
Marion
 
This is gona sound strange....but if you ever watched Star Trek, there was an episode where Kirk asked Scottie...."Mr Scott, do you always multiply your repair estimates by a factor of four!?"

Scottie's reply: "Certainly Sir! How else could I keep my reputation as a miracle worker!"

I'm not saying to make folks wait 4X what it should take, but "life" happens, things get in the way, and any number of things can cause delays. You need to account for those sort of things when giving delivery dates.

If an order is one day late, customers will not understand. However, if you happen to deliver an order BEFORE your stated delivery date, you're a hero...... think about it, and estimate your delivery date(s) accordingly.
 
I was going to pretty much write what Ed wrote....

I always add a month to the date I really think it will be done and commit to that. If I get it done early I just note that I was working a group of knives with similar stone so I just worked their knife in early....
 
I think the first part of managing expectation is to give a good estimate of how long it will take, and if missed how much longer. I have had sheath makers say they needed a month , a time I passed on to the customer, have that date pass and another 2 months go by. I understand life happens but 2 additional months is alot of life. The orginal estimate most likely should have been 2 months. I think its important to let them know if a deadline is going to be missed as well, better hear about it early rather than wait and call you.

The other side issue is how we are doing business, the internet allows us to do business all over the country and all over the world with people who do not know us and do not know us. They also hear the stories of people being ripped off, so they get a little impatient when a deadline is missed.
 
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