To begin, let’s use the right words. Instead of just talking about “exceeding expectations” or “customer satisfaction,” try including these in your customer vernacular: Impress. Surprise. Delight. Enchant. Bewitch. And my favorite… dazzle.

For example, instead of asking the product packaging team: “How can we exceed our customers’ expectations?”

Rather, run this by them:
“Think of the word ‘dazzle.’ When a customer opens our shipment of widgets, how can we make them pause for three seconds, and with a grin on their face whisper under their breath, ‘Those clever little fellows... brilliant.’ ”

Regis McKenna, Tom Peters, Steven Covey, Ken Blanchard, and many others have spoken eloquently about the utter irrationality and absurdity of customer perceptions. How can two competing companies have such wildly different customer perceptions? Even more bizarrely, how can the company whose performance is slightly weaker than its competitor be viewed more favorably by its customers? Answer: Because it’s not just about the hard metrics of performance; it includes the byzantine web of the customer’s expectations—and how the supplier manages them.

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