The small things

Small things impact experiences.
And you can craft these for impact.

I was reminded this week how expectation setting swings a client’s view of your service. Two experiences. Different businesses.

On Monday, I flew with Ryanair. The deal is no-frills. You buy a seat and room for a small bag. Anything else is paid for as an extra. That’s great if you travel light and value economy.

Still, I hear people moaning about paying for extras. Perhaps they’re just too dense to appreciate what’s on offer. I’ve travelled with the airline a lot this year. Two other things I’ve noticed: the staff are warm and helpful, and the planes have always been clean.

I got the experience I expected - good.

This week I’ve also been dealing with another business. I could have bought the same result online for much less. But I didn’t want a no-frills experience, I wanted my hand-holding.

So imagine my surprise when I was asked to print out an important document, they generated, for myself — in colour.

I had expected this kind of secretarial and admin would be done for me. And I would even have been happy to pay for it as an extra. Plus, nowadays I don’t have a colour printer at home, so this request was inconvenient.

But it's more that I’m doing the suppliers job for them!

Not the experience I expected - bad.

Fortunately, I’m tech savvy, so I’ll just uploaded the document to an online printer. They’ll ship it to me, to arrive in 48 hours. Job done.

But there is a knock-on effect.

For future work I may look at the no-frills online option. At least I’ll know what I’m getting. No surprises.

The lesson, of course, is: when offering a personalised service… be sure you set expectations and deliver that experience. Don’t swerve into the no frills land.

Think about every moment of the client journey — from their perspective, not your own convenience. Go out of your way to thrill them.

Or, do deliver no-frills. Strip out all the costs. Make it clear what the extras are. Then up-sell like crazy.

Both are a choice.
But not meeting expectations gets messy - don't do that.