Do You Really Keep Your Promises To Your Customers?

“Pizza in 30 Minutes or Less”

“The Friendliest Electrician Around”

“The Best Service West of the Mississippi”

Really? Do all these companies live up to these promises? Maybe, maybe not. The more important question is: Do you live up to your promises to your customers?

Today I called Sprint. The first thing their automated greeting said was, “Thank you for calling Sprint where you can experience life at Sprint speed.” Then I waited on hold for nearly 20 minutes.

I don’t know about your life, but mine moves too fast to allow the ability to sit and wait for an operator for 20 minutes. And because I was calling about my cell phone I was stuck to the land line phone I called from. Yes, Sprint Speed had me stuck in one place doing absolutely nothing. Then I spent another 9 minutes being transferred from department to department.

Yes, I understand their “Sprint speed” claim has to do with the speed of their data service. But if the first thing you are going to tell me is that I can enjoy life at Sprint speed, maybe you should be better-staffed to make me really feel that way. Here is how I imagine the call starting:

Automated greeting: “Thank you for calling Sprint where you can enjoy life at Sprint speed.”

Operator: “Good afternoon, this is Caroline, how may I help you?”

THAT is enjoying life at Sprint speed. But, apparently, Sprint isn’t living up to their speed promise.

Today’s Idea: Review any marketing materials and phone scripts you have for your business, or employer. For every claim you see ask yourself, “Are we living up to this promise?” If you can’t answer that with a definite “yes” then kill the claim. I don’t care how cool it sounds. If it’s a lie, a customer somewhere has already caught on. Just let the BS claim go, and move on.

Thank me later.