Gently exceeding expectations

Andy Hunt and Dave Thomas’s The Pragmatic Programmer is a bible of sorts when it comes to effective programming. One of the strongest take home points from the book was their advice to gently exceed expectations.

It’s one of those little nuggets of advice that is so subtle that it’s easy to go in one ear and out the other. However, if you follow it, you’ll probably see returns far greater than the effort it takes to achieve. It’s one of the quick wins in life.

In practice

So what’s it all about? Let’s take an example. Say you have a client who wants you to build a contact form. Their requirements are simple: they want their customer to be able to fill in their contact details, press ’send’ and get a response to say the message was sent. Your to-do list on this project might look like this:

• Mark up form
• Design form
• Install code to send email
• Mark up feedback page
• Design feedback page

The client needs it done in a week. Based on the requirements, a week is just fine.

So the expectations are set. Your client expects you to deliver a fully functional, well designed contact form in a week, based on the to-do list above. There are a few possible outcomes in this scenario.

Undesirable outcomes

Let’s look at the worst outcome first. You half ass the whole project. It takes two weeks and even after all that time the form doesn’t work and it looks like shit. No one’s happy. No one wants this. Your client expected you to get the work done. Even if it was a bit late, at least it would work. Their expectations haven’t been near met, and they won’t be working with you in the future.

Alternatively, you could work all night to get the whole thing done in a day. Not only that, but you added a content management system that allows customisation of every element on the page. You even throw in a colour picker, in case your client’s customers don’t like your design. You’re fucking shattered, but when you call your client the next morning, they’re amazed and delighted at your performance. Totally worth it, right?

It’s not that simple. You’ve just greatly exceeded your client’s expectations. Exceeding expectations is the point of this post, but if you go too far, you don’t just exceed them, you change them. The next time your client comes back for more work, not only will they not believe you when you said that you haven’t completed the work in half the time, they’ll be disappointed that you didn’t go to the same effort as before. It’s a vicious, unfair reality.

Meeting expectations

Right in the middle there are two more options: you can choose to meet your client’s expectations, or you can seek to actively, gently exceed them.

Meeting expectations is straightforward: you deliver your work exactly as you said you would. The contact form works and looks as you described and you delivered bang on one week from when you said you would. This is cool. In fact it’s better than cool, it’s very good. Your client will probably come back for more work. You’ll probably get a recommendation.

But there’s something missing. Something of an anti-climax. Your client got what they wanted, but without pizzazz, without any ceremony. You’ve failed to create the happiness that you did when you stayed up all night, killing yourself. There is a better way, almost as effective at creating client happiness, but without the pain.

Gently exceeding expectations

Gently exceeding expectations involves giving your client something that they didn’t ask for, that you know they’ll appreciate. The important thing though is to give them something that won’t cost you very much to implement.

Let’s say you have a couple lines of javascript from a previous project that lets you submit the form via Ajax, with a smooth transition and it’s all gracefully degradable. Your client didn’t ask for it, but you know that it would improve their customers’ experience. It costs you about 10 minutes extra time and effort. Let’s say you’re able to deliver this on the morning of the one week deadline.

Your client sees that the job was done and they have a full day to review it. Not only that, when they review it, they see that it works better than they expected. They’re delighted: They got more than they asked for, even if it’s just a little. More importantly, they know that you’re looking out for them. They know that you care enough to go an extra mile to make them happy, even if you only went an extra inch.

Extras that cost a little gain a lot

You might look at these two small ‘extras’ and say they’re not worth it. Small, simple extras, however, are the kind of things that take you from ‘good’ to ‘great’ in your client’s eyes. They’re the difference between the deli that gives you a free muffin when you buy a sandwich and the one that stiffs you for some butter. The ice cream parlour that lets you taste the ice cream before you buy it. The restaurant that comps your champagne at the start of the meal. They’re the kind of gestures that cost a little, but keep customers coming back again and again.

The next time you’re working on a project, look for ways to exceed your clients’ expectations in small ways that cost you little, but that you know they’ll appreciate. Throw in that feature they’ve been asking for that you know won’t take long. Fix the bug that’s been bugging you, and probably them, but they’ve not got around to contacting you about. Your clients probably won’t know why they’re so much happier working with you, but they sure as hell will be.