June 13, 2006

Managing Expectations

A friend tonight was telling us about her son who is at a five-week college summer school designed for incoming freshmen whom the college wants to consider more closely before absolutely positively granting them admission this coming fall.

There are a total of ten students in the program. What a great opportunity for the students to get to know the college and become the first positive advocates in their freshman class.

But the college seems to have botched that opportunity.

They neglected to provide any orientation. They didn't get the ten students together and let them get to know one another. They didn't tell the students what's expected of them...and what they can expect. They didn't tell them about the various logistics of life...even such basics as what dining halls are open and when.

Managing expectations is one of the most important roles of an effective communications program.

Nationally, the frustration with the administration may have been caused less by the war itself than by the fact that we were told three years ago that the mission was accomplished.

Locally, there's a good restaurant here with good food and lousy service. I'm wondering if the lousy service - which has been consistently bad since the restaurant opened a few years ago - isn't the function of some limitation on space or equipment. I can't believe that it's a function of human error, as that would have been remedied a long time ago. So, suppose they can't afford to fix the problem. Well, then, they should manage the customers' expectations by telling them that it takes a while to prepare their food, and then - for example - they could provide some small already-prepared plates in between courses. One way or another, they've got to manage people's expectations.

At Disney attractions, where there are waits for certain rides, there are signs advising you how long your wait is going to be. Except that Disney always adds five minutes to the actual wait.

So, if the sign says that your wait is 40 minutes, it's likely to be only 35. You get to the front of the line "five minutes early", and you're a very happy camper. It's that simple.

People in our business are often tempted to over-promise. And there's nothing more dangerous. They want to please our clients, so they say they'll do something in an unreasonably short amount of time, or for an unreasonably low amount of money...and all they're doing is hurting themselve, their client, and their relationship.

Several years ago, we helped an 8,000-employee institution communicate to its employees the necessary downsizing that was about to take place and put more than 3,000 people out of work.

We instituted a series of contexts in which managers and employees communicated with one another. There was straight talk. And there were no surprises. Everyone was treated straight up. The communications systems we instituted there are still in place today. And the workforce is more enthusiastic, proud, and productive than ever before.

We can all think of situations in which our expectations have been managed well. And we can think of the opposite, as well. But how are we doing?