Interesting idea.  When I was first starting out as a consultant, I wanted to 'exceed expectations' on every project I worked on...until I had a older and much wiser consultant told me that the following:

This reminds me of what a manager of mafacturing told me. Sometimes when they are short of capacity, they outsource the jobs to other firms, and sometimes the quality comes out higher than they specify. They actually do not like this, because this can unfairly set the expectation in the customer's mind that the quality is achievable consistently in their product line.

Fascinating example Chui provides; I love examples that point out counter-intuitive things.  This not only supports the truth-not-exceed point of view, but reminds us that expected quality trumps high quality—at least for some buyers in some situations.

Agree that in circumstances like company performance, sales for the quarter, and manufacturing output, someone who "always" exceeds expectations is setting expectations too low (i.e., is sandbagging) or is letting someone else set the expectations too low without correcting them.  With respect to consulting work, I find that while I always try to set expectations about what I'm going to deliver - and how, when, and at what prices I'm going to deliver it - I find myself throwing in extras. The extras are seldom if ever marketing deliverables (which is what I do professionally), but tend to be "I know you didn't ask for this, but here's some advice" about something else that's going on in their business. (Either it's 'free advice - they get what they pay for' or maybe I should change my line of work!)

I always try to exceed expectations. When I first read your post, I was nodding my head in agreement  but after I thought about it for awhile, I changed my mind. I am NOT lying by exceeding expectations. I am just going above and beyond because...that's what I do. I set expectations for a project appropriately, and (like Maureen) throw in extras as the project gets moving. The extras exceed what I said I'd do - not because I want extra credit or more money or because they make me look better - I just think that when you bring emotions into it, and you should always bring emotions into it, you will exceed expectations as a matter of fact. Is being nice in today's cold business environment seen as exceeding expectations? From your description, I'd say so. No, thanks. That kind of thinking belongs back in the old Dick and Jane world of the 20th century, where men were fond of repeating, "But, it's just business."

Thanks Maureen and Yvonne for pushing the thinking; I quite agree with what the two of you are saying, so the question becomes not who's right, but how to phrase it more precisely in a way that incorporates both.  Here's a shot at it; please build on it.

When I say "don't exceed," I had in mind the core deliverable of a project—it's going to cover X markets, Y products, with Q budget, in Z timeframe.  It seems to me that to systematically plan to come in under budget, ahead of time, covering more products and markets than originally promised is the kind of cynical policy that degrades trust.

What I hear you talking about—and I agree, and try to do the same—is "exceeding" on other things: free advice, identifying other issues, offering perspective, investing time in some key relationships to help the client.

To my mind, that is the essence of professionalism—going beyond the boundaries of the narrow contract, to help the client envision alternatives to the current reality.  Not to do that—to limit your entire potential value-added to the narrow scope of the project—is to abdicate your responsibility as a professional, in my opinion.

It goes way beyond being nice (which I certainly didn't intend to rule out), it gets into the sense of professionalism. 

In that sense, I'd say we always should go well beyond the bounds of the contract.

Maybe the way to put it is, don't exceed the client's expectations about the specifications of the contract, but do exceed  expectations about the  scope of the contract.

How does that sound to you?

I have two comments. The first is that we have a common theme — trust. When a company has the mission statement to "exceed expectations" (Google finds 120,000 such references), employees may resort to dishonest manipulations to achieve this effect. When customers, bosses, or employees realize that you deliberately understated your abilities in order to manipulate their feelings, then trust is destroyed and replaced with cynicism. Without trust, commercial and social transactions become slow and expensive.

Maureen, Yvonne, and Charlie make good points about how you can build good-will and trust. Most of these are "soft", spontaneous deliverables that are probably impossible to specify in a contract, but they offer real value all the same. Although some people can't handle honest discussions of risk and setbacks, I completely agree with Allen that clear communication wins.

My second comment is that "exceeding expectations" doesn't necessarily work. As Chui points out, people quickly adapt to your extra service, and now expect that. So, while I never stop pushing myself to innovate, the fact is that unless you have infinite funds and superhuman creative powers you'll soon run out of new ways to exceed your past performance. Then what do you do for an encore?

Besides, most customers may not even notice your efforts to exceed their expectations, as supported by some research.  However, if you screw up once they notice immediately.

Rather than putting a promise to exceed expectations in the company mission statement, it is probably more realistic and useful to promise to do everything in your power to not screw up. When you do screw up, the trust and communication you’ve established can get you through. Achieve that and you'll be doing better than most people expect.

from GATTACA

we strive to ensure that each meets his expectations.

what if someone were to exceed their expectations?

no one exceeds their expectations.

no one?

if they did it would simply mean that we failed to accurately guage their abilities in the first place.

 *its that simple.

John,

I suspect we're in violent agreement.  I too find, when I get an unexpected opportunity, I can create delight  The problem comes when you try to make the unexpected expected; when you try to always exceed expectations.  Or, as I said in the blog:

There’s nothing wrong with an occasional surprise to the upside. But engineered surprises, delivered regularly, degrade trust.

I probably should have added the word "always" to the title, as in Don't Always Exceed Expectations.

Thanks for the comment.