Service promises: Benefits, examples, tips (updated 2024)

An awesome customer experience starts with an awesome service promise. But what exactly is a service promise, and why is it important to your business? When we talk about customer experience, we’re talking about every interaction a customer has with a company, influencing how they perceive the brand's value and reliability. Central to crafting a compelling customer experience strategy are service promises—commitments made by a company to its customers regarding the quality and consistency of service delivery. These promises not only set clear expectations but also play a crucial role in enhancing overall customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Read on to uncover the definition of service promises, their importance in shaping customer perceptions, real-world examples of effective implementation, strategies for formulating impactful promises, and best practices for effectively delivering on them. 

What is a service promise?

A service promise is a set of tangible guidelines defining what customers can expect from business interactions and how those experiences should be consistently delivered by frontline staff. These promises are not just lofty ideals but a repeatable series of small actions that serve as a cornerstone for building trust and reliability between a business and its customers.

Unlike product guarantees, brand promises, unique selling propositions (USPs,) and other business commitments, service promises specifically focus on the quality and consistency of service delivery. They outline the standards of service excellence that customers can anticipate in every interaction with the company.

Service promises play a pivotal role in shaping brand perception by influencing how customers perceive a company's reliability and trustworthiness. Consistently meeting or exceeding these promises fosters positive customer experiences, enhances brand loyalty, and differentiates the company from its competitors.

Key components of a good service promise

A good service promise is essential for setting clear expectations and fostering trust between a business and its customers. 

Here are the key ingredients that make a service promise effective:

• Clear and specific: A good service promise must be crystal clear and specific, leaving no room for ambiguity. It should clearly outline what the customer should expect from their interactions with the business.
  
  
• Understood and believed: For a service promise to be effective, it must be widely understood and believed by both customers and employees. This ensures alignment in delivering consistent experiences that meet customer expectations.
  
  
• Measurable and achievable: An effective service promise should be measurable in quantifiable terms. This allows the business to track performance and ensure accountability. Plus, it must be realistically achievable by the business, considering its resources and capabilities.

In summary, a well-crafted service promise should answer three fundamental questions:

• What do your customers want?
• How are you going to deliver what they want?
• How will you differentiate yourself from your competition in delivering these promises?

Service promise examples

Zoom+Care

Zoom+Care operates over 50 urgent care medical centers across Oregon and Washington with a mission to reduce the waste of traditional healthcare and to keep people healthier, happier, and more creative.

Zoom+Care promises “twice the health, at half the price, with ten times the delight,” and they back this up with 10 service standards, which are printed on the wall of every clinic (you can’t miss it). It’s a unique, holistic experience that starts with a mobile app for booking appointments and includes an online chat with doctors and a “perfect visit” experience that ensures appointments are always on time.

AA Home Response

AA Home Response is an emergency subscription service for your home. For the times you’re faced with a burst pipe, buzzing switchboard or you’ve locked yourself out, a trusted AA tradesperson comes to save the day. 

AA’s service promise is all about speed and access. They guarantee that they will find someone for the job within the hour. They also promise accessibility, with 24/7, 365-day access to their staff. Speed and access are what the AA are known for, and what sets them apart from their competitors. Their frontline team is coached on this promise, to deliver on-point experiences every time, in every location. 

Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research.

Mayo Clinic's service promise revolves around providing patient-centered care and prioritizing patient needs above all else. This commitment influences their healthcare services by ensuring personalized treatment plans, comprehensive medical care, and a focus on patient outcomes. Mayo Clinic's dedication to patient-centered care has earned them a reputation for excellence and trust in the healthcare industry, leading to high patient satisfaction rates and continued growth in patient referrals..

Humes NZ

Humes NZ, New Zealand’s leading pipeline systems supplier. Their service promise includes seven guidelines they have come to be known for. 

These include: 

1. Accuracy in everything we do: Order recording, pricing, invoicing, tenders - mistakes are frustrating, time-consuming, and cost money to fix so we promise to get it right the first time, every time.
   
   
2. Delivery when we promise: Late, incomplete, or incorrect deliveries cost you money so we promise deliveries in full, on time, as ordered and to give you timely delivery updates.
   
   
3. Tenders that help you win: We promise tenders that are on time and easy to follow plus we'll suggest alternative solutions that will enable you to achieve better outcomes.
   
   
4. Specified core items always in stock: These are the items you've told us you depend on most.
   
   
5. Our smile comes free: We love what we do - we hope it shows.
   
   
6. It's the putting right that counts: We've been working with customers like you for over 90 years and our reputation matters. If anything goes wrong with our service or the products we supply, we promise to put things right. Fast.
   
   
7. Technical support whenever you want it: We know our stuff. We'll solve your problem on the spot or keep you informed as we work tirelessly to source the answers you need. Our conversation will never end with "I don't know." That's a promise.

Best practice tips to create and deliver on service promises

Creating and delivering service promises can be challenging due to various factors such as misalignment between marketing and operational capabilities, lack of employee engagement, and inconsistent delivery across different locations.

To overcome these challenges, consider the following tried and tested tips:

Communicate your promise

Effective communication of your service promise is crucial for setting clear expectations among customers and ensuring alignment across all departments within your organization. Consistency in messaging helps build trust and reliability.

Regularly review & adapt

Frequent review of customer feedback and operational data is essential to gauge how well your service promise is being fulfilled. Being customer-centric involves actively listening to feedback and making necessary adjustments to meet evolving customer expectations.

Train & empower employees

Invest in comprehensive training programs that educate employees about your service promise and empower them with the skills and authority to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Engaged and knowledgeable employees are key to consistent service delivery.

Leverage customer experience (CX) software

Utilize customer experience (CX) software to streamline the process of collecting customer feedback, analyzing insights, and monitoring service performance across different touchpoints. This enables you to align your service promise with customer expectations effectively. Discover more best practices and the latest strategies companies are using to delight customers in AskNicely's collection of customer experience resources.

Why are service promises important? 

Service promises are crucial as they benefit both customers and employees alike. Here’s how:

• Enhances customer trust and loyalty: Service promises set clear expectations, leading to greater trust and loyalty. For instance, customers who are promoters in the net promoter score (NPS) system are 4.2 times more likely to make repeat purchases and refer friends. Learn more about the impact on loyalty in the Return on customer experience model.
  
  
• Differentiates a brand from competitors: A well-defined service promise distinguishes a brand in the competitive landscape, emphasizing unique value propositions that attract and retain customers.
  
  
• Reduces customer churn: By consistently meeting or exceeding customer expectations outlined in service promises, businesses can reduce churn rates and retain more customers over time.
  
  
• Increases employee engagement and accountability: Service promises provide benchmarks that employees can strive to achieve, boosting engagement and accountability.
  
  
• Improves operational efficiency: Clear service promises to streamline operations by aligning teams around common goals, optimizing processes, and reducing inefficiencies.
  
  
• Facilitates clearer communication and expectations management: With defined service promises, communication with customers becomes clearer, ensuring that expectations are managed effectively and consistently.

How can AskNicely help? 

AskNicely is your partner in creating and delivering on service promises, ensuring your customers' needs are met and exceeded. Here’s how:

• Collect: Effective service promises begin with understanding customer expectations. AskNicely allows you to collect valuable customer feedback through customizable surveys via email, web, or SMS. This feedback is essential for creating, reviewing, and adapting service promises to align with customer needs and expectations.
  
  
• Assess: With AskNicely’s feedback analytics, you gain mission control to measure and enhance satisfaction and loyalty. Compare data across locations and branches to identify trends, ensuring consistency in service delivery and alignment with your service promises.
  
  
• Transform: Engage and empower your frontline teams with AskNicely’s employee activation tools. By providing real-time metrics and tactical insights, you can gamify customer service and support, motivating employees to deliver on service promises and exceed customer expectations.

Ready to transform your customer experience?

Discover how AskNicely can help you create and deliver on service promises that drive customer satisfaction and loyalty. Book a demo today and see firsthand how our platform can elevate your customer experience strategy.