Promises, promises, promises

Only make promises you can keep and keep the promises you make. Sounds simple, but doing it is one of (if not the) biggest failures of business.

So what’s in a promise? There are many kinds. Explicit, implicit, big, small, short-term, long-term, just to name a few.

Last month, I kept a promise log for one week, trying to capture every single promise I made, from the banal (I’ll do the dishes today) to the more business related (I’ll get you the report to you on Tuesday).

At the end of the week I went back over my list. It was illuminating to say the least. I didn’t keep all my promises exactly when I said I would, but I did score over 90% – not bad, but for a promise oracle not really good enough.

However, more than the percentage, it was what I discovered about the promises I didn’t keep that told the most interesting story, and also confirmed some things I already knew about myself – like the fact that I hate bookkeeping tasks.

The pattern was clear. The promises I didn’t keep fell into two distinct categories. They were either things I didn’t really care about, or things that I’m not that good or confident at.
And in that I suspect I am not alone.

If were to review the promises made and promises kept lists for any company it’s a pattern that I’m certain would repeat.

The dictionary defines a promise as “a declaration/express assurance on which expectation is based that something will or will not be done.” Not much wriggle room there, though you would never know it judging the cavalier manner in which businesses use the term.

From Coles posting huge “we promise” signs in supermarkets, to Jetstar burying its promises in substitute language such as “we are committed to,” a business can’t escape its promises.

And here’s the rub, you don’t have to use the words “promise” for it to be a promise. If you are setting an expectation for something then you ARE making a promise.

A phone number on your website is the promise that a person will be able to talk to someone – small wonder people get so frustrated with automated voice mail systems and menus that stop that from happening.

A feature touted on a new product is a promise, as Apple found in the sharp end of customer wrath when the reception on its iPhone 4 didn’t live up to their hype.

An agreement with a supplier or partner is a promise. Virgin Blue were understandably and vocally upset when Navitaire’s promise of a working check-in system failed to deliver for 28 hours.

An interest rate is a promise. And when banks take the base rate and add their own margin on top, the public feels that promise is being broken.

A forecast to investors is a promise. Even though it is speculative by nature, companies are still routinely punished when they don’t meet the numbers they have predicted.

An election promise is a promise, not a bargaining chip to be conveniently ignored under the guise of public opinion and political process.

An ad is a promise – something that marketing in general has been so deaf, dumb and blind to that they have almost single-handedly eroded our ability to believe anything we are told (of course there are always exceptions).

And here is where the rubber of promises meets a very bumpy road. The most public promises a business makes are in its marketing and in the one-on-one interactions between employees and customers. Not coincidently, they are also the ones that seem to be the most easily broken.

The marketing arena has been steadily eroding our belief in promises for decades, to the point that nearly any marketing position today is more likely met with “yeah right, sure you will” than the expectation that you will get what is promised.

For too long marketing has been given a hall pass – hype, smoke and mirrors being not just expected but actively encouraged. The more public the company profile, the bigger the promises they seem to make, like a weird destructive game of one-up-manship.

But in today’s hyper-connected social media dominated world of business, you can’t hide your failure to keep your promises any longer. Not only will you be caught out, they will be trumpeted across Twitterdom and the blogsphere.

Take the recent failures of ANZ and NAB to reign in their debt collections practices. The implied promises of their ad campaigns and taglines quickly became the stuff of parody. Tweets along the lines of “Hey ANZ I guess you live in bank world after all” and “NAB = more take” made it clear that people had built expectations around their messages. That is they saw them as promises that had been broken.

In another high profile failure to keep a promise, David Jones has been subject to both a financial and reputation cost from their former CEO flat out ignoring the inherent promise that goes along with employment – that you will be able to work in a safe environment free of harassment.

On the employee customer front, take a recent experience I had with a favorite company and brand – Patagonia. Seeing they only have one store here in Australia I wanted to call and make sure they had the particular item I was looking for. After speaking to the person at the store they promised to check with the warehouse and call me back. Nothing, nada, no call. So I followed up a week or so later (yep, I really wanted it) and spoke to another person who along with many apologies for the lack of response the first time was just heading to the warehouse and would call me from there to let me know if they had them or not – she even took my number. Still no call.

So finally I was in the area and called the store a third time to see if they had the item. They did and so I called in and picked it up. Sure, I got what I wanted in the end, but I was left loving a company I have routinely touted as one of the best brands in the world, a little less.

To be fair, Patagonia don’t make any claims about exceptional service (unlike companies like Zappos). Its service guarantees are universally centered around the design, sustainability and durability of its products – and those promises they rigorously keep.