Customer Expectations

I've written before on customer expectations and how important it is to set these appropriately, but a recent experience really highlights how important it is to not only set the appropriate expectation to your customer - but to deliver on that expectation. Here is my story:

I've flown Qantas pretty much exclusively for the last 7 years. I'm currently a Platinum frequent flyer and have been for about 3 years. As a Platinum level FF I have high expectations. I don't expect to be kept waiting to check in, I expect access to the first class lounge, I expect the odd upgrade and I expect to get my seat preferences. In the 7 years I've been with Qantas I've had just one upgrade. It was from business to first on a trip from Hong Kong to Sydney - but in 7 years (3 as Platinum) this did not meet with my expectations. I expect flexibility but increasingly Qantas would not allow a last minute change when checking in - no matter how much you were prepared to pay! Not what I expected as a Platinum FF. Finally, and this was the last straw, I recently did a trip to the US flying Qantas. The first issue was when I went to check in at Melbourne. I stood waiting in the first class line while about 20 people were served in the economy queue. Not what I expected (and if I had actually paid for a first class ticket I probably would have asked for my money back there and then!). Eventually I was served - not even a sorry for the wait! The entire trip (and this trip consisted of 7 flights) I didn't once get my seat preference - though the worst was on the 15 hour flight back from LA to Sydney when my wife and I were in the middle of a bank of 4 with two singles on either side. This is probably the worst seat on the plane - and NOT what I expected. Qantas had raised my expectations to a high level with their tiered FF program - and then failed to deliver on every one of the expectations I had.

So, on the back of that, I decided that Platinum was actually of limited value to me, and I moved all my business to Virgin Blue (we are an account that spends just on 6 figures, so this is a reasonable amount of business that Qantas has lost).
Virgin Blue, for moving the account to them, immediately gave me Gold status. My first flight with Virgin I arrived at the counter ahead of time and asked, hopefully, whether there were any flights leaving earlier. Based on my Qantas experience I expected a stony faced response that they couldn't do anything (I didn't purchase the fully flexible fare) and that I would just have to wait. But no, the Virgin attendant got me onto the next flight (delaying the gate closure so she could get me a seat) AND upgraded me to premium economy!

Now I know that all airlines screw up eventually - they have to given the number of people involved in their service delivery. But given my Virgin Blue experience it will be a long time before Qantas is in a position to win back my personal business and my companies business. The QANTAS CEO was recently quoted as saying he wanted to win back some of the share they had lost from Virgin - but I don't see that happening if they continue to set high expectations for their customers, then fail to deliver on ANY of those expectations.

The point for this post? Don't set an expectation that you cannot deliver on. Decide what you want to be and stick to it. If you want to offer tiered service levels, then you better be damn sure you can meet the high expectations you are setting for the top tier standard.
Tell me about your experiences. When did you have an expectation set too high and the organization failed to deliver? How did you feel about that? Did it make you take your business elsewhere?