We hear it all the time. “Under promise, over-deliver”. But it deserves to be said again and again and lends itself to constant reinforcement, especially here at Exigent. Today, I needed two things from two of my vendors. One was time-sensitive and urgent; the latter was what I would consider a wish or special request.
Due to an upcoming “HOT” project with another NJ IT solutions provider, it was requested that we issue a standard certificate of insurance (COI) right away. Since my administrator was off for the day, I had to take this on myself. Feeling a slight amount of stress, I looked up our insurance broker’s telephone number and gave her a call. As luck would have it, she was out to lunch. So I left her a voicemail. To my delight and relief, not more than ten minutes later, I get a voicemail and an e-mail back from her.
The e-mail states that she could turn this around really fast. All she needed is the name and address of the recipient. I hit reply, give her the requested information, and five minutes later BAM! – certificate appears in my inbox. (Imagine a chorus of Angels singing). In the e-mail, she states that a printed copy will serve as an original. (How convenient!) I then hit forward, send it to the requestor, and I’m D-O-N-E. Mission accomplished, in about 15 or 20 minutes! Bottom line; my vendor exceeded my expectations and in doing so, added more glue to our long term relationship. Pain-RELIEVED. Thank you, Cathy Lewis of The Hurley Insurance Agency!
Next up was a vendor that has truly mastered the art of exceeding expectations, TelephoneOnHold.com. This is the company that produces the top of the line auto-attendant and on-hold services for some of the nation’s top corporations – like Exigent Technologies! Justin Ginsberg and his team never cease to amaze me. Today, I emailed Justin to let him know that I had mentioned his services to a client of mine. He thanked me of course, and then I replied with a seemingly simple request. I can’t get into the specifics of what that request was, but suffice it to say that his reply of “that’s tough one – let me look into it and see what I can do”, to me, meant, I may not get this done, or, this could be done, but might take some time.
Five minutes later, I get an e-mail from Justin, it states, “it’s done – try it out”. Unreal! This was almost as good as the time that I called Justin at about 7AM on a Monday morning. I was my full expectation to get his voicemail and simply leave a message. Nope! Not Justin. He answered the phone live through some feature on his phone system that forwarded my call to his cellular phone. I was truly blown away.
Bottom line – often times, it doesn’t take much time or effort to exceed customer expectations. With a willingness to act quickly to concerns or requests and a keen understanding of your customer’s pain at any given time, any organization can add the cement-like stickiness that we always seek to engender with our customers, and that we hope to have with our vendors.
Daniel Haurey Jr. is the president and founder of managed IT services provider Exigent Technologies, which he founded in 1997. Under his leadership, the MSP has earned accolades ranging from Channel Futures MSP 501 to being named SonicWall’s 2024 MSP Growth Partner of the Year. Dan is a true entrepreneur, dedicated to growing, investing in, and mentoring small businesses. You can find him on LinkedIn, where he regularly posts about technology, business, leadership, and community.