There’s the saying in business “Always under promise and over-deliver”.
Or more recently this has morphed into, “Over promise AND over-deliver”. Eeek, just how do you do that?? But actually, it can be much simpler to do than most business owners make it.
It’s the little things that count…the things you maybe question whether you should bother & whether anyone will notice. We’ve been really fortunate to experience examples of over-delivering in almost every place we’ve visited in the past few months.
First there was Panama….here, our initial experience of renting an apartment wasn’t quite what we expected. Nothing worked and the fact that we were in the only building in that area above 3 storeys meant it sounded like we were living in a howling wind tunnel.
It wasn’t the rental agents fault though.
They went out of their way to solve the problems that weren’t actually theirs to solve (it was the errant owner who was being incredibly slow to respond to any of their requests). They did our laundry and delivered it back to us, they organised for things to be fixed within about half an hour of us calling them and then they didn’t charge us anything more than the deposit we’d already paid when we left early.
Then came the apartment in Amador which came complete with 2 bikes (unadvertised on their website). This was PERFECT. The Amador causeway is a stone’s throw away and it is a gorgeous place to walk or cycle along as the sun sets. Not only that but the owners, Patty & Rudy, also invited us over for drinks & nibbles despite being in the middle of launching their new B&B and exhausted from the effort of the last few months.
Hmmm, not many examples from Buenos Aires – although we LOVED the fact that the waiter/waitress in our favourite cafe always greeted us with a “Hola chicos” (translation: “Hi guys!”) which always made us feel very welcome & like locals. Ah, we’re easily pleased.
And here in Grenada, despite sometimes encountering some unsmiling faces (although it’s been a lot better today already), we’ve been lucky to experience more examples of over-delivering.
The owners of the apartment we’re in have pleasantly surprised us today by allowing us to stay in the bigger apartment instead of having to move to the smaller apartment now it’s free (which is what we’d agreed & paid for).
They drop off home-grown, organic fruit in our kitchen from their garden and Anthony (the husband) takes Jonathan to play football with him every week (when the poor precious hasn’t been injured from the previous week – “Oooh, look at my bruise” is a regular comment made every week on a Monday morning now).
They are all very, very simple things to do that really don’t cost a lot (like smiling) but make such a difference.