Under Promise and Over Deliver

A curious change has occurred in air travel in recent years. No, I’m not thinking about enhanced security or the charges for checking bags.  It’s the air lines’ scheduling. You can now occasionally arrive as much as 30 minutes early for routine flight.  That never happened in years past. So what’s up? Have the cash strapped airlines somehow become more efficient?  Not exactly. They have figured out a way to be more effective.

Efficiency vs. Effectiveness

Efficiency is about doing things right.  Effectiveness is about doing the right things. With all years of the airline efficiency efforts there remain elements that are out of their control like weather and traffic patterns.  However by focusing on what they can control: their stated arrival time, they are able to make promises to their customers that less likely to be broken.

Flying Smarter

The airline’s secret to better on-time performance is to simply change the rules to make it easier to be on-time. If you allow yourself two hours for a flight that optimally takes an hour and 15 minutes, you can significantly reduce your likelihood of being late.  And so they under promise and occasionally over deliver. Over delivering takes the form of being 30 minutes ahead of schedule.  While this is not a breakthrough technical innovation. But who cares?  Air travelers already expect to wait for security measures and baggage to be processed.  With a more reliable schedule, we’re more frequently satisfied.

Have you been over promising?

Can you take a lesson from the airlines?  What challenging promises have you been making to your customers?  Is it possible to tweak them to be more attainable?  Might your customers be happier with less efficiency and more effectiveness?