Keeping promises is all about matching your customers’ expectations to what you can actually do.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with telling a customer you will take a little longer to deliver than the next guy, as long as you keep your promise.  If your competitor says he will deliver on Monday, but doesn't show up until Wednesday, that can cause bigger problems for the client than if you say you will show up on Wednesday and keep your promise.  Virtually no one is going to complain about a reasonable delivery time, as long as they know they can plan with certainty around what you promise. 

Similarly, if you promise to call a customer back with a price quote or an answer to a question, make sure you make that return phone call as promised, on time and with the information requested.  People don’t often have an expectation that you will be able to answer every single one of their questions as quickly as they can ask them, but they do expect you to be able to get the information and follow up with them.

Small promises and big promises

There are two problems with failing to keep a small promise like a return phone call that may seem insignificant to you.  First of all, it is likely that the promise you made wasn’t insignificant to your customer.  If they didn’t care about the answer to their question, they wouldn’t have asked it.  Secondly, you will leave the customer wondering if you will honor bigger promises like delivering the product they asked for at the time they needed it.

Pretend for a moment you are planning a 50^th wedding anniversary party for your parents.  Among the vendors you contact, there will likely be a bakery and a florist.  Assume you live in a very small town, and there is only one bakery and one florist, so you have no choice of another vendor for each product.  Let’s say that on Monday you call the bakery and the florist, telling each of them what you want and asking them to get back to you with a price quote by Thursday. 

If the bakery calls you back on Wednesday, giving you the exact information you asked for, but the florist fails to call you back, which one are you going to feel more comfortable about when the day of the celebration arrives?  You will have at least some level of expectation that the baker will show up because he kept his small promise.  On the other hand, since you had to initiate the repeat contact with the florist, would you be at least a little nervous as to whether the order would be correct and on time?

This small example indicates how your customers think about your business, too.  If you cannot keep your small promises, what would make your potential customer think you will be reliable enough to provide what he needs?  And given the fact that you probably have many competitors, what would induce the customer to buy from you rather than from someone who actually called back?