What is the secret sauce for creating raving customer advocates that never leave?
I’m talking about customers that will repurchase and renew time and time again and never even entertain a conversation with your competitor.
Three words.
Under Promise. Overdeliver.
Amazon and Gong.io Set the Bar
Although I had heard the saying ‘Under Promise. Overdeliver’ many years back, I’d never really experienced it until I moved back to the UK for a couple of years in 2018.
And then I started using Amazon to order stuff for my new apartment.
Delivery estimate: Tuesday 16th April
Actual delivery: Monday 15th April
Amazon offers a wide range of products at competitive prices, a slick buyer experience, fast delivery, excellent communication and easy returns.
But their real ace card is that they frequently deliver earlier than estimated.
They do entirely the opposite of what we expect from most companies.
We have become so used to late deliveries and returns being a painful experience over the years that we have come to expect and accept it.
Gong.io – The B2B Example
On the surface, many people know Gong.io as a sales coaching tool that records calls and provides sales reps and leaders with call feedback.
It’s a fast-growing large US company with a strong brand and over 1,500 employees.
If you work in business-to-business (B2B) tech sales, it’s hard not to know about Gong, as everyone raves about it.
But people often say the same thing at the end of that passionate pitch.
“But it’s pretty expensive”.
Past buying experiences would make it easy to conclude that it’s likely going to be expensive and difficult to use, and I am not going to get much customer service.
But hopefully, it will deliver on its promise of what it does.
And then you get the budget approved and take the risk, hoping it works out so your CFO doesn’t crush you at the next budget meeting for an expensive mistake.
One of the biggest problems with most companies is that their websites and salespeople do such an excellent job of overselling their solutions.
It’s common to feel oversold when you finally get your hands on a product.
But not with Gong.io – not, at least, in my experience.
Even though I had been convinced to invest on the back of rave reviews from two sales leaders I trusted, I was still sceptical of how good it would be.
And then I was met with something way better than I could have imagined.
I won’t go into detail because you’ll probably start thinking Gong is paying me a commission or something, but it is a fantastic tool in many ways.
Like Amazon, the buying process was slick, and communication was excellent, but Gong’s ace card was their fantastic product.
Despite the many appealing promises made on their website, the product delivered so much more.
So much so that I think their pricing is way too cheap – don’t tell them, though 😉
And even if another competitor came along, how could anybody else possibly live up to standards that have already exceeded what I expected?
Conclusion
If you want to create raving customer advocates for your business, you need to stop overpromising because even if you have a good solution, it will never be amazing.
You are in control of setting the expectations for your customers.
But unless your solution exceeds those expectations, your customers will only ever feel like they got what they paid for at best.
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