How do you ensure success and not risk damaging your good reputation when dealing with requests with unrealistic expectations for the amount of time and work involved? The answer is to manage customer expectations. One of the best ways to have happy customers is to be sure they know what to expect.

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Michaels & Associates Docntrain, Ltd. dba Michaels & Associates
11639 E. Wethersfield Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85259 USA
marketing@michaelsandassoc.com www.michaelsandassoc.com
Phone: 480-614-8440 Toll-free: 877-614-8440 Fax: 480-614-2775
Copyright © 2008 Michaels & Associates Docntrain, Ltd. dba Michaels & Associates. All rights reserved.
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M A N A G I N G E X P E C TAT I O N S : 7 T E C H N I Q U E S
If you work on documentation and training projects, you’re very familiar with requests to
develop new materials in unrealistically short timeframes. This is especially common when
the requestor (your customer) doesn’t have well-grounded expectations about the amount
of work involved in delivering quality materials that align with critical business objectives.
Since perception of your performance equals reality to your customer, a request made with
unrealistic expectations for the amount of time and work involved can be a real challenge
for you. The danger of misunderstandings, missed deadlines, frustrations and ultimately
poor perceptions of your ability are real.
So, how do you ensure success and not risk damaging your good reputation when dealing
with this type of request? The answer is to manage customer expectations. One of the best
ways to have happy customers is to be sure they know what to expect.
Techniques to Manage Expectations
The good news is that, no matter what your role is, managing expectations enables you to
positively influence project outcomes. Practice these techniques and manage expectations
with favorable results.
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1. Know What You Can Deliver
Before committing to a project, know what you’re capable of delivering. The only way to know this is to
define the project and build a plan that addresses the specific needs for the project. After gaining a clear
definition for the project you, should be able to accurately gauge the amount of effort involved, if you have
the right resources and tools available and if the work you already have on your plate will conflict with
milestones or deadlines. It’s much better to openly discuss challenges that may prevent you from delivering
and propose viable solutions up front than to disappoint a customer.
2. Educate Your Customer
Educating your customer is a very powerful tool in managing expectations because once you’re both on the
same page, you have a partner to your cause. Take the time to openly communicate, explaining what it
takes to develop the product within the timeframe and to the agreed upon standard. You don’t need to bore
your customer with all the minutiae of your development processes, but the customer should understand
that you use processes to ensure a quality product and avoid surprises. Also communicate any risks you
foresee that may impact the project, such as dependencies, scope creep, unrealistic deadlines and the like.
Communicating these things openly and honestly lets you prepare your client and discuss alternate options.
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3. Negotiate Realistic Project Timelines
Throughout any project, the one thing you can count on is that there will be
challenges, unresponsive contacts and unforeseen circumstances. Expect it and
proactively plan for these types of exceptions in the project timeline you negotiate.
Consider and account for past experiences when estimating how long you think it will
take to deliver your product. You can always deliver early and exceed the expectation.
Being late, however, is not easily forgotten.
When negotiating a realistic project timeline, you should find out and understand the
priority for each deliverable. Many times, certain deliverables are more important than
others. Your customer might find it more advantageous from a business perspective
to receive materials for one topic over another. Understanding the priority allows you
to offer development for each of the deliverables based on a prioritized approach.
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4. Communicate Project Risks
Project risks such as system or network unavailability, unresponsiveness, slow turnaround times for reviews or other unforeseen circumstances are
common. Solicit feedback from the project stakeholders as a preventive measure to manage risk. Discussing fears, doubts and uncertainties about the
project during the project kickoff may allow you devise a plan to resolve some risks before they occur.
5. Communicate Often
Frequent communication about the status of each deliverable and your progress at every step along the way to key project team players is crucial to
managing expectations. Create a communication plan and environment where sharing ideas and discussing project details are routine.
There are many online collaboration and project management tools that can assist in housing the project’s history and providing access for all project
participants. Many can be found here:
• http://www.mindmeister.com/maps/show_public/12213323
• http://mashable.com/2007/07/22/online-collaboration
• http://crazeegeekchick.com/blog/27-free-must-have-online-collaboration-tools
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6. Continuously Monitor Expectations
As projects progress, expectations can change due to any number of reasons—some of which include scope creep and loss of focus. Continuously
monitor the project for changes in expectations and work to manage those expectations. Keep team members focused, and ensure they have a clear
understanding of the objectives and project plan.
Try to anticipate problems or issues, and work to resolve them quickly. It’s important to develop and communicate a risk management plan before
issues occur. This provides project stakeholders with trust and comfort and allows everyone to know what steps to take when a problem arises. When
a problem does come up, bring together all key personnel to determine the necessary resources to solve the problem, and swiftly execute the
determined solution.
7. Deliver on Promises
Failure to deliver on promises will damage your customer’s perception of your performance—it is as simple as that. Avoid the grief of not living up to
customer expectations by developing and maintaining a reputation for making realistic commitments and standing by them.
Disclose all the details about a project throughout its lifecycle. This kind of transparency removes surprises from the equation and ensures you meet
expectations because everyone understands the situation and knows what to expect.
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Exceed Expectations
Want to read more on this topic? No matter what your role is, you have more influence to impact customer expectations than you might think.
Access these links for some Remember, you know best. Your customers are relying on your expertise, and it’s up to you to help them
interesting insights on managing
understand what you need to create great results. Practicing these techniques to manage expectations gives you
expectations.
the power to develop documentation and training materials with praiseworthy results that exceed customer
 http://blogs.bnetau.com.au/aussi
expectations.
erules/2008/12/06/avoiding-
deadline-dangers/
 http://archive.salesnewz.com/sal
esnewz-23-
20040217ClientDemandsThatAre
ToughorImpossibletoMeet.html
 http://www.zdnetasia.com/techg
uide/techmanagement/0,390449
02,39353961,00.htm
 http://project-
management.alltop.com
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We hope this document helps you meet and exceed expectations on your future documentation and training projects.
Not sure where to start? Drop us a line and we'll be glad to get you started. Michaels & Associates — learning without the mess.
marketing@michaelsandassoc.com www.michaelsandassoc.com toll-free: 877-614-8440
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