Going Above and Beyond
Everyone knows that going above and beyond expectations is one of the most effective methods of achieving success, but how many of us really do it? I’m not talking about in your own mind, but rather in the eyes and emotions of someone else.
To give you an example of what I am talking about, I’ll tell you about what happened to me today. Recently I had an idea for a website that I couldn’t get out of my head. No matter how hard I was trying to focus on what I needed to get done for my business, I couldn’t get rid of this thought and it was taking up space in my mind. I decided I had to do something about it so I could at least get my other work done. So, I started mapping out the site with what I wanted and how it was going to work and it came down to the fact that I needed a portion of the site to be built by a programmer.
I am a total fan of outsourcing. If I can’t do it, I will pay someone to do it for me so I can focus on what I am good at. I put the project up on Guru.com and I accepted a bid from a guy in Ukraine. Now, I know some of you might think that sounds like a nightmare to deal with, which in some cases it can be, but in my experience I have had great results and as it turns out this was no exception.
We started the project, very easily working through the language barrier and in about two weeks the project was finished after multiple revisions. I was very happy with the results even though it took longer than the initial quote, but that was because I wasn’t exactly sure how I wanted it to work at first. The programmer uploaded the finished product to my site, I paid him, and thanked him and his team for the great work. Again, I was completely happy and satisfied with the work. In my opinion they went above and beyond my expectations.
The next day I received an email back from the programmer thanking me for the work and the payment but, he didn’t stop there. He said after thinking about the program and looking into the future of how I would interact with the website, not just the customer’s interaction, he thought I would need one other piece of functionality that would make my life easier.
What? Really? He had done everything I asked for and I paid him, transaction done, happy customer, time to move to the next project, right? Apparently, this man is different. He put himself in my shoes and tried to figure out what the best experience for me would be, even when I wasn’t expecting him to do it. That’s what I call going above and beyond expectations.
Needless to say I was more than thrilled, but it made me think of what I do in my business and life each day and if I am going above and beyond in the eyes of others, not just myself. I doubt if anyone is writing a story about me today like I am writing about Sergey, but it was a valuable lesson learned for me and, in the end, I am more grateful for the learning experience than I am for the extra work he did. Thank you Sergey, it may not have meant much to you to do the extra work, but it meant the world to me. Let’s see what we can do with your gift now…
