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Customer Expectation, Customer Service
In my opinion, the best way to make a commitment to someone, is to honestly appraise what you’re willing to do for them, then pull back a bit to give yourself a “fudge factor”, quote a slightly longer delivery time, slightly higher cost, slightly lower quality, etc. If the project takes longer or is more expensive, you’ll still be able to fit within your original estimate. If you’re able to complete it on the original estimate, you look like a hero
This strategy may be good in short run, in specific cases and you may get a praise for it.
However, managers do not like surprises every time. So, we should always stick to our commitment, deliver as required and on time.
agree with expert answer above
Under Promise or Over Deliver.
Ultimately , With competition heating up in every market, firms are forced to promise the moon to get an order, especially that first order.
Right?
No, Wrong. With an explosion of competitors, many of them new and without track records, reliability, rather than overly aggressive promises, is the most valuable strategic edge, especially for the mid- to long- haul. While getting faster at responding to customers is imperative, living up to commitments has never been worth more.
As it turns out, consumers are pretty simple. If their purchase does what its sellers said it would do, they’re happy. If it doesn’t, they’re disappointed.
This harkens back to the popular idea that happiness = reality – expectations. If reality exceeds what you had hoped for, you’re content even if other people think the outcome was bad.
For instance, say you expected a on a physics exam in college. Upon receiving a, you’re overjoyed (or at least satisfied) — despite it being still a C — because it’s better than you thought you would do. Happiness, then it would seem, is relative rather than absolute.

Admittedly, this is a vast oversimplification of human behavior. However, it’s been shown that in marketing, this is typically the case. According to one study, customer satisfaction is inversely proportional to customer expectations.
It would seem then, that it’s a good idea to boost happiness by lowering expectations. But of course, this is not how our society and economy work. We constantly demand bigger and better, so much so that “new” and “improved” are some of the most effective words in marketing. In addition, consumers have been building up knowledge of what they should expect in certain situations since birth. So unless you’re the producer of the equivalent of the first personal computer, you have little to no control over what their expectations are.
Instead, promise the basics and then some – everything you can guarantee delivery on, and be consistent about it.
Over-promising always made me feel like I was playing catch up. I’d do a half-assed job just so I could say, “See, it’s technically done…”
When I under promise I’m able to surprise not only those around me but often myself. It gives me the space to do my absolute best and that makes me feel good—that makes me feel proud.
This is about giving yourself momentum. Each time you make good on a promise you will feel that much more confident in your abilities. Every promise fulfilled will help you to associate your name with positivity and trust. Making promises you can keep is instrumental to helping you build and maintain any relationship in life.
i fully agree with the answers been added by experts..........thanks.
Before courts, laws, and complex social systems, we had promises—the assurance that something will be done. Promises are still one of the most important tools we have to help us navigate social encounters.
There are four reasons that we make promises:
People keep promises because it helps to build the foundation necessary for maintaining and evolving relationships. The larger the promise, the greater the obligation is to fulfill it.
Big promises create big expectations and when those expectations aren’t met the brain responds by signaling a decrease in dopamine production. When we make a promise and meet or exceed expectations that signals an increase in dopamine production which makes us, and the person(s) we made the promise to, feel good.
Your brain wants consistency, it needs it. So when someone makes a promise that something will happen, our brain believes that it will, which is quite comforting for the brain.
When a promise isn’t fulfilled, that consistency your brain was counting on disappears. It’s not only a breach of trust and expectation—it’s a violation of one of the most fundamental social norms that people have. This goes way beyond disappointment, it alters the way people perceive and interact with us.
A promise is a debt.
A study by Dutch Researcher Manuela Vieth, found that broken promises cause us to want to punish and seek revenge upon the promise breaker. These feelings impact any future interactions between the two parties involved.
Your brain knows when you are going to break a promise long before you are even willing to admit it to yourself. Researchers in Switzerland discovered that they could predict who would break a promise based on the brain’s reaction during the three-stage model of promise making.
Promise Stage
Let’s say you’ve told your coworkers that you would absolutely, definitely, help them finish a project.
At this initial stage, you haven’t fully decided whether or not you are going to keep or break the promise to your coworkers. Your brain, however, has already registered an emotional conflict because it knows that you don’t really intend on keeping that promise. Because of this, the brain will activate your negative emotional processing centers.
Anticipation Stage
Now that you’ve told your coworkers of your promise, you have to wait and see whether or not they will trust you to keep that promise…
The anticipation of their response causes you increased stress, which of course your brain will register. Your brain is already preparing you for possible negative outcomes and future consequences.
Decision Stage
You’ve decided to break your promise to your coworkers because you are too busy.
The decision to break a promise promotes a reaction in your brain similar to that of a lie or deception. You’ll feel some guilt and fear over how breaking this promise will affect you. To combat these feelings your brain will remind you of the motivation for breaking the promise by activating your reward-based decision making part of the brain.
1. Ask yourself if the promise is necessary
You should make a promise out of your genuine desire to follow through, not because you feel an obligation to do so. Consider what you are trying to achieve by making this promise and whether or not it can be obtained by making a smaller, more manageable promise.
Example: It’s Wednesday and you are not even close to half-way done with a project, but you promise to have it completed by the end of the week. You make the promise because you want to impress your co-workers, but you’ve forgotten to take into consideration all of the other work you have to do.
Instead of promising to complete the entire project in an unreasonable amount of time, break the project up into sections. Promise to have portions of the project completed by a certain date. This allows you to manage expectations and keep up with the workload. You’re co-workers will still be impressed and you’ll be able to keep your promise. Double points!
2. Under-promise
Estimate how long you think it will take you to fulfill the promise and then double or triple that time. If you are not able to answer how long it will take you to complete a task, don’t give an answer. Tell the other person or group that you will get back to them.
Example: If an article normally takes me three days to write, I’ll say four just so I have extra time in case part of the process takes longer than planned. If I get it done before the four day period is up, that makes the client happier, it makes me happier. Everyone wins.
3. Shit happens
Sometimes we can’t help but break a promise. Be up-front and immediately offer an apology. It makes a difference and will go a long way towards repairing your relationship.
Example: Say I promised to have five articles completed by the end of the week but will only successfully complete four. Here’s what I would tell my boss directly: “Because the articles have taken longer than expected, I will have four (rather than five) done by Friday. In order to move fast next time, I’m going to choose topics of a smaller scope.”
I offer the reason—not an excuse—and a solution for how best to avoid this situation from happening the future.
Over-promising always made me feel like I was playing catch up. I’d do a half-assed job just so I could say, “See, it’s technically done…”
When I under promise I’m able to surprise not only those around me but often myself. It gives me the space to do my absolute best and that makes me feel good—that makes me feel proud.
This is about giving yourself momentum. Each time you make good on a promise you will feel that much more confident in your abilities. Every promise fulfilled will help you to associate your name with positivity and trust. Making promises you can keep is instrumental to helping you build and maintain any relationship in life.
Agree with the expert answers here
I feel it is a better strategy in all aspects. I'm not saying that I will not deliver promptly, the things is that I'm not promising upto my level I can, but at the end I'm delivering promptly more than promise. Rather over promising and unable to deliver as promised, the other strategy is better and makes happy the promissor and promisee. Thanks.
Thank you for the invitation ... I will agree with the answers that really covered your question... Variety of correct info and opinions ... Nothing to add !
Thanks for invitation
I think to be over deliver is very important to have your rank among competitors
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