Why People Expect More When You Offer More.

blog cover image
327
2.4M followers
Updated

Today I want to discuss "expectations" and how as you grow your business, the expectations that others have of you (and most importantly your customers) will actually be dictated by your own personal behaviour as a company.

Let me explain.

Over the years Carson and I have worked tirelessly on improving the platform, services, and community here within WA. If you have been around Wealthy Affiliate for any length of time, you will confirm the fact that within any given year we roll out out MANY significant updates, this year being one of our busiest yet.

This is not unusual for companies to do that care about their customers, but all businesses are not built the same. Some companies focus their efforts on offering value and over delivering, whereas others focus their efforts solely on how they can make the most money possible, irrespective of the quality of their service.

When you focus on your service and customer value, as we do here at WA, people have the tendency to expect a lot more out of you. The better you are, the better they expect you to be in the future. That is how great brands are established and how you build long term customers. You certainly don't build that by offering an inferior service to what others in the industry are offering.

We strive for perfection. This is very much unachievable (there is no such thing, just close to perfect), but in doing so we put ourselves in a situation where the people here within WA anticipate and expect more out of us. That is a big responsibility and one I would like to discuss in this post through some personal insights.

When You Strive For Excellence, People Expect it Out of You.

People are conditioned to expect things, when they happen with regularity. Think about various products/services you use in your life, that you love (sometimes without knowing).

Let's take your mobile phone for example. These devices are incredible when you think about it, I am personally a passionate Apple user and have been for many years.

Apple updates its products with regularity, some of the most technically sophisticated and well-thought-out updates, but they typically go unnoticed by users. This is because the experience gets better, and we as users EXPECT Apple to get better with every iteration of their device, and expect their iOS to do more for us (and do so more seamlessly) with every update.

We are fans of the brand and we would certainly despise an inferior device if we tried it, but we expect excellence which is a good thing. It keeps Apple and other companies on their toes and pushing to innovate.

At Wealthy Affiliate, the same sort of thing happens. We are constantly developing new technology and we simply roll it out and integrate it the platform here when its ready. Some of these projects take us months or years to develop, and then we release and it just becomes part of the environment. And then people expect more.

As funny as it sounds, this is a good feeling. It means that people expect us to be a leader, and that we have become leaders in the space. This what we work hard for; the expectation from our audience that we are going to continue to get better. And we do.

We know that we can always improve and push the technology, training and community here at WA far beyond any other company in the industry. That excites us and is hugely motivating.

Contrary, When Your Service Lacks the Expectations Are Low.

When you produce junk, people view you as a junk producer.

If you have ever walked into a pawn shop you know what I am talking about. Although there are some true gems to be found, most of the products are either stolen or products that were literally sold off someone's wrist so they could pay their bills. They are used goods.

But that's what you expect.

You don't expect some sort of elite quality out of a pawn shop. In the affiliate marketing education space there are lots of "pawn shops". You get what you get, don't expect more out of an e-book or some hyped up and overpriced info product. It is going to deliver at the lowest level.

This spans across every marketplace.

You don't expect to get a "no name" brand and experience the same level of quality as a company that has made that particular product their entire focus. Or you don't expect a software company notorious for flawed and buggy software to somehow produce something of quality with a future software launch.

People naturally set the bar low for companies, products/services, and even companies that have a record of producing products that lack quality. Expectations are low for these, and people don't expect anything from them. They are not industry leaders and they have a difficult time establishing a brand.

Why We Encourage People to Look at Competitors.

We have never been afraid of competition. Ever.

We not only embrace companies try to build businesses, we appreciate anyone creating a good service. In saying this, we are in business and our ultimate goal will always be to offer the best service in the industry and to continue leading the affiliate marketing space in terms of education, community, and the environments required to run an affiliate marketing business.

That is our main focus.

We look around the industry and we certainly know what is out there, and we have a really good grasp as to what we are offering. The biggest competition that we have ever viewed within the online world is OURSELVES though. We are hyper critical of everything we do, to the point of throwing projects out after months of development because they don't meet our expectations.

We also avoid ANY hype, even things that we think we have executed brilliantly and will be met with a lot of excitement. The reason is we are not a hype driven business, we are service focused business. There is no need to exaggerate something that is delivering on every level.

In saying this, we know that every single platform or improvement that we launch here is just one iterative step to something that is even better.

A Slow Moving Brand. It's How We Like It.

There is a natural tendency to feel frustration when you are not growing fast enough, worse yet, when you have dips in your business. This happens with when you are establising a solid brand. Brands where companies are building something of substance. The longest running companies you see and the ones with the best brands aim to grow 10-15% year over year, on a positive year. Some years they may experience 50% growth though, and they have years when they experience negative growth, but through the arc of time they see an upward trend of growth cycles in their business.

That is the way we approach business. We are not willing to compromise our brand for instant growth. We are not willing to take a risk to make a lot more money, for the sake of losing repuation with our customers (which are brand is based on). And we certainly are not willing to sell out the people of Wealthy Affiliate to fatten our pocket books.

That is how we run our business. Some people would probably say this is the wrong approach and we should be doing things to just "make more money". There is something to be said though about being in this business for 13 years, and being at the top of our game 13 years later.

We are more committed than ever, and WA is in the best position than it ever has been in terms of technology, training, our subset of platforms and services, community, support systems and also cost...and we're growing at a faster rate than ever!

We haven't raised our prices in 13 years. Let that sink in.

In comparison, the average mobile device has doubled during this time. There are companies charging several $1,000 to attend a single conference in this industry, and there are companies charging $10,000+ for their education. Comparatively, that would be a 3 to 30 year membership here at WA!

Today I just wanted to share my thoughts and insights on this topic. If you are building and establishing a business and you have an audience that is not expecting 'more' out of you, chances are you are underdelivering (and people will be moving on to another competitors service).

Would love to hear your feedback on your expectations of product and services and how you define something as a brand leader. Leave your comments below!

Login
Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
icon
4-Steps to Success Class
icon
One Profit Ready Website
icon
Market Research & Analysis Tools
icon
Millionaire Mentorship
icon
Core “Business Start Up” Training

Recent Comments

170

Because you hold yourselves to such a high standard, we hold ourselves equally so. We are so impressed with what you have created here and this is why we are so committed to WA.
We expect so much from you and we want you to expect the same from us.
Great post!
Your friends in Ecuador,
Colette and Philip

Both Yourself and Carson are what I would call Master Painters. You both started off as beginners and with each brush stroke over the years you have created masterpieces.

Sure not all your paintings were masterpieces but over time and with patience and perseverance you both have created original masterpieces.

You will be remembered for your originality, quality, and inspiration. I can’t put it any clearer. I am learning from the best and I am indebted to you both.One day I will create masterpieces

That is exactly it. Some of our paintings were horrible along the way, as were our skills running a business. But with time, effort, dedication and focus we were able to turn many of those lacking skills, into refined skills. ]

We wouldn't be anything without folks like yourself and the community here, and we absolutely get and respect that. Our focus moving forward is going to be for YOU and what makes your life easier and more efficient as an internet entrepreneur.

Kyle,

My biggest flaw is I'm very honest. I can't live with myself if I try to sell someone on junk. I have to truly believe in a product before I ask anyone else to buy it.

Wealthy Affiliate is by far the best platform I have found for learning how to build an online business (Real Home Business) and it offers all the tools you need to do that at a very affordable price.

After nine years I am still finding things here that I didn't know about. That says a lot about a company and its service. I have seen great changes in the platform and I have a wish list for the future if your interested, I would love to send it to you.

Kyle you and Carson have done a tremendous job making this a user friendly platform and community that can help each other to build a Real Home Businesses. It is proven by the success stories we see almost daily.

Keep up the excellent work!

- Glen B

There certainly is a lot going on here and a lot offered (much of which takes time to discover), but perhaps that is something that we can work to improve upon. Discovery of new platforms, training and conversations within WA.

See it is that sort of feedback that helps us constantly improve. We have a great pulse on what people want because we interact directly with 1,000's of members every week and see what they like, they don't, and what is "so so". That gives us fuel to improve!

The success stories are why we do this and we are going to work to create the most EVER in 2019. We have plans. ;)

In agreement with you Kyle, the key is to offer an excellent service especially with the step of the years. Keeping it will not be easy. I would like very much that the two training courses we have here, some parts need to be updated. Not so much for us but for the new ones that enter. Everything on the internet is constantly updated. These updates should be better than the previous one for whom? For us the users. That all the processes are simpler. Gutenberg is a good example I love working with him and I can achieve a better view, color, images, text, than with the previous editor. It is a contribution that I wanted to provide.

You cannot protect an industry lead by being the best now, you have to do it by creating a better tomorrow. That is what our focus is and we have many projects going on behind the scenes at any given time that we have been working actively on for a year+.

And yes, Wordpress is progressive too with their platform which is why they have retained their industry lead and why we love the platform (most of the time) so much and leverage it here.

Bright days are ahead!

This is a great platform and the positives are too many to mention here! You certainly have walked your talk and have earned respect among your customers as well as your competitors. I know you will keep up the good work. Thank you for the quality, service and price WA provides us. Great job!

Expect us to continue walking the walk. We are nearing our plans for 2020 already as we already have a busy schedule of releases right through 2019!

Thanks for your ongoing support John and expect and demand evolution and innovation out of us here moving forward. :)

Thanks to you Both, I am so glad that you have created this platform and keep this service available and affordable for everyone, even when you are living in a low-paying country, it's even possible to earn your membership fee right here at WA. I have a mighty respect for you and how you run your business.

It definitely is. You are going to see a lot of focus on the internal economy here at Wealthy Affiliate moving through 2019.

The fact of the matter is there are a lot of business owners here that have money, but not time. There are people with time (and a lot of great kills), but not an active business quite yet. We are going to be working to bridge those two things.

That and a whole lot other things, it is going to be a business winter spring here within WA!

That sounds very promising Kyle

Appreciate you sharing. I haven't read your post yet, but I do plan or reading it tomorrow. Thanks Kyle.

Sounds good Michael. ;)

Continue to set the example.

We certainly plan on it Jared. We will always lead by example and aim to improve. We know we are not perfect, and we do make lots of mistakes, but that is part of growing as a brand and a business.

Keeping transparent and allowing everyone here within the community to grow along side is something that we will continue doing.

Good services is expected of us but increase in fees must be friendly to all from rich to poor.

Absolutely the case. We have no intention in increasing our premium membership, but we do have a lot of intention to continue to advance our services here.

That will make everybody happy, Kyle, Master Teacher.

I can't really comment on being a brand leader, as I still have much to learn. But I so loved reading this story Kyle. And I would like to say that I believe that your brand and its success is based around principle's of Great Faith! And being here for 10years, and also spending time at your largest competitor's brand, the offerings inside WA are horrifically unbeatable. And belonging to this platform is a true Blessing from which I am forever grateful, Thank you and your whole team that makes this place better and better for us everyday. I have a belief that the true potential of WA is still yet to be revealed in terms of The Great Plan:)

Horrifically unbeatable, I love that. They actually are beatable, by us and we plan on continue to beat our own service with a better service.

I can tell you that we have some really amazing stuff coming as we move through the winter months and right through 2019.

I am still with limited success, brother. But I have no doubt in my heart! That you will cease to amaze. I believe I am led here by God Himself my friend. << You Fulla's bro..... I love you's so much for that. Can't wait to meet you in Vegas :)

Thats me, releasing the False Evidence Appearing Real

Thanks for the kind words Robert. The #1 reason I see people fail, and that I have seen myself personally fail in business is lack of focus.

People have the tendency to either want to do too much, or the get business ADHD and try to take on too much at once and work on too many projects at once.

You only have to be great at ONE thing to be very successful online. ;)

See more comments

Login
Create Your Free Wealthy Affiliate Account Today!
icon
4-Steps to Success Class
icon
One Profit Ready Website
icon
Market Research & Analysis Tools
icon
Millionaire Mentorship
icon
Core “Business Start Up” Training