Win customer loyalty by managing their expectations

‘Under-promise, over-deliver’: a case study in growth and retention from Sprint Couriers.

There is a line between a bold promise… and over-promising.

‘In 2022, customer expectations are higher than ever before,’ begins Sprint Couriers co-Founder, Michelle Gebrial.

‘In our industry, it seems like new competitors enter the market every day. For us, this underlines the importance of retaining every customer who comes our way,’ she continues. 

In 2006, Gebrial founded the business with close friend Pinkie Setlalekgosi and a core team of 16 employees. Today, they oversee a countrywide operation and over 350 full time staff, the country’s largest citizen-owned delivery and logistics provider. 

Read more about their growth story here. 

‘When it comes to long-term customer retention, we are open about sharing our strategy,’ she smiles.

‘We under-promise, and then we over-deliver.’ 

Gebrial proceeds to lay out a perfect example of how this works.

‘Our Budget service offers what we believe to be the best balance between speed and value. Anything the customer brings to us by 7pm will arrive at its destination before 5pm the next business day. We offer this service within a 500km radius of the drop-off point, and in any direction.’ 

‘The 5pm deadline is one we know we can meet comfortably, given the size of our fleet and the experience of our team,’ she explains.

‘Because we give ourselves a deadline that is within our capacity, we often wow the customer. They’re expecting a 5pm delivery, but often find their packages arriving in the morning, or just after lunch.’

This is what Gebrial calls ‘under-promising’.

Managing the customer’s expectations in this way then sets the stage to shine – and win lifetime customer loyalty.

‘If you hand out bold promises and then fall short, you will experience increased complaints, a reduction in repeat business and even social media fallout,’ she explains.

‘That is why we go the opposite way: we only make guarantees that we know we can sustainably keep. This is a key driver of our retention strategy and overall growth,’ concludes Gebrial.

There is a line between a bold promise… and over-promising.
Train your team not to cross that line.