Libby: Hey, you know that delivery from IKEA?
John: Yeah.
Libby: That was supposed to come yesterday, not until Monday.
John: Didn’t you pay £15 to get it delivered?
Libby: Yeah, to get it delivered yesterday.
John: That’s absolutely rubbish.
Libby: Hmm, it is. Let me tell you why it’s rubbish. Because of lockdown, we ordered a very small item, £9 for my stepdaughter’s bedroom, but we paid £15 to have it delivered rather than schlep up to Nottingham and do the click and collect and all that stuff which is fine – that was a decision.
Premium service. Happy with that. We had to pick a nominated day for delivery, which was yesterday. Nothing arrived. I was going to call them today, but just had an email to say it’s now coming on Monday. No explanation of why it’s delayed.
So really, my message here is if you’re offering a premium service, which is £15 pound on a £9 item, then make sure you deliver premium service.
There’s going to be delays at the minute, that’s fine. I understand that not everywhere is fully staffed and people are trying to operate differently. But if you’re offering something, £15 for delivery, then it needs to deliver on that. So if you are offering a premium coaching service, or a premium, a premium course or a premium product, what you want is for people to feel as if they’re getting value for money on that.
I’m a big believer in premium products and premium services. That’s absolutely fine. But the delivery needs to match the expectation which in this instance it really hasn’t for something that should have been cheap and cheerful item that we chose to pay extra for, you know, that’s fine for our convenience has just it’s kind of just made us a bit cross.
Another example is that I bought some new lights yesterday from a company online paid for next day delivery, just £5.99 the item was £100 and it’s coming this afternoon. So that is a premium service, even though it turns out cheaper than IKEA and it’s all being delivered accordingly.
It’s just to make sure that you get your messaging on your product and your expectations right with your clients because you don’t want people to be cross with you with you because they’re not getting what they expect from a product or service.
Yes, I know there’s lots of caveats to this because IKEA just do one delivery price and all of that. But the message is still absolutely valid and it’s much better to over deliver on something than under deliver, literally, under deliver in terms of our delivery being delayed. But there’s a reason that I price my online programme at £297 and pack it absolutely full of value – it’s because I want people to be happy, I want people to get the value from it.
I want them to tell their friends and colleagues and associates, this is great. You know, you can get £3,000 worth of value from a £297 course. So, over deliver under promise. Do not over promise under deliver. Listen to me IKEA – I’m disappointed in you. I hope that’s been a useful lesson.
