The promise-delivery gap (& why your team could be widening it)
We see it all the time - websites that sell “exceptional service”, socials that sell a “customer-first” approach and a person-to-person service experience that doesn’t deliver any of it!
Whether it’s at a front desk or on a shop floor, in a meeting or on a customer call - it’s not about the setting. What matters is matching up the promise you make with the service you deliver.
If Marketing sets an expectation that delivery doesn’t meet, the business ends up looking like it’s lying or incompetent. Neither are good for building relationships or reputation.
How the gap shows up (& it always shows up)
Look out for these symptoms:
Customers leaving unexpectedly. The ones you think “should” love you are leaving instead.
Complaints that all cite 'poor service'. They may be dissatisfied because there was a gaping hole between what they were told & what they got!
Referrals that don’t happen. There’s silence where you'd normally see 'word-of-mouth'. Reputational damage doesn’t always announce itself - instead, people simply stop recommending businesses that overpromise but underdeliver.
A team that’s confused, or worse, cynical. Frontline staff can't tell you what the brand stands for or why customers should choose it. That lack of awareness undermines every bit of your marketing budget.
Unfortunately, most businesses treat the symptoms without ever diagnosing the disease.
Which is?
The Promise-Delivery gap
There are five reasons the promise-delivery gap exists & it’s rarely just one.
There's no clear 'Promise' to deliver If you haven't got clear on what your source of differentiated Value is, then you're underselling your business at the same time as undermining your brand & your team's ability to build it. This is a fundamental strategic problem that needs to be fixed urgently (book a GRIT Session now)
They don’t know about it No one’s ever sat the team down & properly explained what the customer experience is supposed to feel like or how it connects to your distinctive offer. It might sit on your website or in a social post but it’s not in anyone’s job description, induction process, training sessions or one-to-ones. You can’t deliver a promise you don’t know about.
They don’t believe it. Even where the team know what you're trying to offer, they don’t buy it - often because it was created by one person or department, in isolation, with no involvement from the people who actually have to deliver it day-to-day. If a proposition is developed without any real business context, including input from the humans on the ground, why would anyone treat it as gospel? Just look out for the eye rolls whenever you get talking about brand, marketing or customer service.
They don’t know how. Generic customer service training teaches generic good. Friendly. Responsive. Professional. That’s fine BUT “generic good” has no fingerprint of your business in it at all. What does good look like specifically for you? What’s the tone, the pace, the level of formality, the bit you do that nobody else does? If nobody’s defined “brand good,” you’re relying on individual judgement to reverse-engineer your positioning. For junior staff especially, that’s a lot to ask.
You’ve hired the wrong people. Sometimes it’s none of the above. Sometimes the person just doesn’t fit - the culture, the personality, the standards the brand actually sets. No amount of training fixes a values mismatch. That’s less a delivery issue than a recruitment one.
How to fix it: get joined up
Individually, you could be dealing with problems of communication, relevance, engagement, training or recruitment. What goes wrong is when each department looks at each problem individually - through their own lens - & comes up with their own solutions…
…another training day
…an all-staff email reminding them to “live the values” (do these ever work??)
…an experimental team restructure
... the classic brand “refresh”!
Unfortunately, none of these individual solutions address the fundamental gap in between the different departments.
The answer is to stop looking at the individual problems & start being more joined up - in both thinking & doing.
Why Rock’s way works…
4 things we do differently that, when combined, make our approach rock-solid:
Firstly, our 4-Foundations Framework is designed, at a big picture level, to treat business, brand & behaviour together. So, instead of having different strategies for different business areas, with everyone drowning in detail or working to different agendas, you have ONE set of straightforward success factors that your whole team can relate to & run with.
One, shared strategy = no silos.
Secondly, we treat Connection as one of those core success factors - &, within it, we explore ALL of the different audiences you need to connect with, i.e. not just customers but also suppliers, partners, investors and, critically, your team. We profile these different audiences. We understand their different needs AND we find the common ground that forms the basis for meeting those needs, managing expectations and building relationships across the board.
Connection = building strong relationships
Thirdly, we use a wide & well-grounded data-set to work out both what the promise should be & how well you’re currently set to deliver on it. Your messaging isn’t a “Marketing thing” - it should be built by the people who have to defend & deliver it. That’s why we’re big fans of research & consultation. But we won’t just run a workshop where senior leadership make decisions based on their own knowledge & gut feel. Instead, we look at the data you hold, we talk to your team, customers & suppliers, we complete our own research and then we compare our learnings against your business’s goals, ambitions & market conditions. When people have been involved in a process & able to influence its output, they’re way more likely to relate to that output.
Broad Research + Consultation = stronger insights & wider buy-in
Finally, once we’re clear on how things should be & what needs to be done to get there, we'll put a cross-functional plan in place that involves all the right people - both inside & outside the business - with Rock providing the common thread that pulls it all together & keeps it all on track.
Joined up = commercials, creative & culture working in harmony.
If your team can’t tell you what your customer experience is supposed to look & feel like, you need to find the gap & fix it - NOT just ship out some desk-top merch claiming “the customer is always right.” (because, anyway, they’re not - but that’s the subject for another blog).
About Rock.Partners
We're trusted management partners for B2B SMEs determined to build stronger businesses & brands.
What we do: We act as an extension of your management team, providing complete support, from strategy to delivery, across your whole business...
First, we define your strategic foundations - Direction, Connection, Impact, Value.
Then, we align your whole business around them - Commercials, Creative, Culture.
How we work: Our flexible, client-led delivery model meets you where you're at.
We offer both Managed or Guided service levels, depending on how hands-on or -off you want us to be.
We can work with your in-house team, complement existing partners or plug any gaps with specialist partners from our own networks.
We scale every scope & solution to suit each clients size, stage, sector & circumstances.
From business strategy to brand identity, sales support to culture building...if you want a management partner you can rely on, one who'll help you to build a rock-solid business & isn't afraid to rock boats (or mix metaphors!), you've found it.
Rock.Partners - Strategic support that works for SMEs - Joined-up. Client-led. Rock-solid.
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