Thursday, September 11, 2008

Expectations Make A Big Difference

We dropped my oldest daughter off at college a few weeks back and helped her move in. Her room is on the seventh floor of her dorm, so there is no practical alternative to taking loads of her belongings up in one of two small elevators. What was true for us was also true for dozens of other families dropping off their daughters and sons at the same time. The wait for the elevator was about fifteen minutes long. We made it in three loads, each with it's own wait for the elevator.

While a fifteen minute wait might seem like a huge pain, we were thrilled that it was so short. The school had wisely scheduled drop-offs into two hour windows, and they gave us plenty of warning to arrive early because the lines could get long for the elevators. The event was so well run, it almost had a party feel. Simply setting our expectations changed what could have been a horrible first impression into a customer relations delight.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

College! How do they grow up so fast?? Congratulations!

Ken Flowers said...

Amazing, isn't it.