What happens if a deadline slips?

It would be wonderful if everything always ran according to schedule and came in at or under budget, but the reality is that such a scenario rarely happens. If you are planning a one-shot event such as a wedding, there’s no opportunity to make up for a missed deadline, so it is imperative that you work with caterers, florists, and bakeries who have earned your trust by keeping their promises.  Alternatively, you can set deadlines ahead of when you actually need the product so that even if they miss by a few hours, you’ll still be able to keep your promise to your customer. 

In most situations, a missed deadline doesn’t have to mean a lost client.  Hopefully, you have built contingencies into your plan, but if even the contingencies don’t cover the problem, and you will be forced to break a promise, customers will appreciate communication, particularly if you communicate the problem early and provide frequent updates. 

Most people are reasonable and will accept your apology and explanation, especially if you sweeten the pot a little for them.  Perhaps you will give them a discount or throw in some extra supplies or even offer to install the product for free.  Think in terms of what the delay or cost overrun will mean to the customer.  We'll talk more about this in Chapter 12, but the simple example below will illustrate the concept for now.

My father once went to Paris on a business trip, and traveled daily by train between his hotel and his office.  The train service there is so reliable that on the one day they were late, representatives of the company met travelers as they exited the train and handed them a note to give to their bosses, stating that any tardiness to work was the fault of the train company, not the fault of the individual employee.  The train riders didn’t need to worry about what would happen to them because the train company took care of the problem they had created for their customers.

When you know you will not be able to keep a promise, before you call the customer to tell him about it, figure out what you can do to make it up to him.  You may be able to turn a broken promise into a wonderful customer service moment if you have the foresight to plan a solution that leaves the customer whole.

Reality vs. Wishful Thinking

When I was a child, we had a little five-and-dime store in the small town where I grew up.  No matter what you asked for, Gil, the owner, would assure you he would have it next Tuesday.  It became something of a town joke because people would go in and ask for something impossible like fried eagle feathers, just to get the standard response from Gil. 

Are there things in your world that you promise based on wishful thinking or are you realistic enough to admit there are some things you just cannot do?  In Confronting Reality, Bossidy and Charan note the six habits of highly unrealistic leaders.  One of these six problems is wishful thinking, which they state arises from “the urge to see things as you would like them to be, which takes on the form of rhetoric that is not backed by any facts or analysis.” [i]

If you operate your business based on wishful thinking rather than on hard facts, how many unfulfillable promises do you think you might be making?  What would that do to your credibility?  Would your customers be willing to rely on you or would you simply become the town joke?