Every business has moments when it can’t deliver. The popular size sells out, the kitchen closes for the day, orders run 30 minutes behind, the Christmas delivery cut-off passes.
None of that is a failure. It’s what happens when a business is busy, and the next few weeks and months will bring plenty of it. Managing customer expectations isn’t about avoiding those moments, it’s about how the customer finds out about them.
A policy or a let-down
Picture two customers getting the same news.
The first sees a sign at the door: “Kitchen closes at 2pm.” It’s 1:45, so she orders straight away or decides to come back tomorrow. Either way, she’s fine.
The second walks in at 2:05, waits in the queue, and hears at the counter that the kitchen has closed. It’s the same rule at the same business, but this time it feels like a let-down.
Tell me before I ask, and I’ll plan around it. Let me find out at the counter, and I’ll go somewhere else.
Customers are good at working around what you can’t do, as long as they know about it. What they don’t forgive easily is being caught out, especially after they’ve given up time to get to you, and most won’t complain, they’ll just quietly choose somewhere they can count on next time.
You usually know first
In most of these moments, the business knows before the customer does.
You know stock is running low before the shelf is empty. You know the kitchen is backed up before the order is late. You know your Christmas cut-off date weeks ahead. The customer only finds out when you tell them, or when it happens to them.
That gap, between when you know and when they find out, is where the let-down happens. Close it, and most of the disappointment goes with it.
Why this is about certainty
At Business Life Support we measure customer experience against six principles we call the 6 Feels. They are viewed from the customers perspective and are the are six things every customer needs to feel in every interaction, and any one of them can lose you a customer. Three of them are at stake every time you can’t deliver.
Feel Reassured: Reassurance is about certainty, a customer can handle a 20-minute wait. What unsettles them is not knowing, or finding out only after they’ve come up to ask where their order is.
Feel Respected: Respect is about how much effort a customer has to spend to get what they came for. Making the trip for something that sold out an hour ago is wasted effort, and they’ll remember it.
Feel Confident. Confidence is the customer’s read on whether you have things under control. A listing or website that still shows what you’ve run out of tells them you might not.
The fix is the same for all three: tell them first.
- Running late: “Food’s about 20 minutes at the moment.” Say it before they pay, not when they come up to ask.
- Sold out: update the board, your listing and your website when something runs out, not after someone has made the trip for it.
- Booked out or past a cut-off: say it early and everywhere, with the date. “Order by 12 December for Christmas delivery.”
A ten-minute exercise before the rush
Before your busy period starts, take ten minutes with your team, or on your own.
First, list the moments you know are coming. Don’t list everything that could go wrong, just what happens every busy week: the items that sell out by midday, the wait at peak times, the sizes that go first, the order cut-offs.
Then, for each one, decide four things:
- How customers hear about it: Where will they find out before they’re standing in front of you? A sign at the door, the board, a line on your listing or website, a word at the counter before they pay.
- What the team says: Agree the words, so nobody has to make it up on the spot. “We’ve sold out of the large today, more comes in Thursday” lands better than “Sorry, we don’t have any.”
- What you can offer instead: A similar item, a time it’ll be ready, a call when it’s back in. “No” is easier to hear when it comes with something.
- Who can offer it without having to find you: If only you can approve a swap or a call-back, every let-down waits until you’re free. Decide what your team can offer on their own.
Here’s how one might look for a cafe:
- The moment: the almond croissants are gone by 10am on weekends.
- How they hear: “Almond croissants: weekends until 10am, while they last” on the board and on the menu page.
- What the team says: “They’ve gone for today, sorry. They come out first thing, so get in early next weekend.”
- What you can offer instead: the plain croissant warmed with jam, or holding one for a regular who asks the day before.
- Who can offer it: anyone on the counter.
Put it all on one page, somewhere the whole team can see it.
Want to go further?
This is one part of what we cover in our customer experience courses for shop and cafe owners. Over two live sessions, Where You Lose Them and How You Keep Them, Business Life Support walks you through the full REBOUND method, including what to say in the moment when you can’t deliver.
If you’d like to start smaller, our free 30-minute masterclass covers what customers decide about your business before they ever come through the door.
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I run a shop
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