Measuring up to the customer’s expectations

Jul 24, 2026 | Industry Advice

Screenshot 2026 09 24 153547 Measuring up to the customer’s expectationsAs part of the BSGA Corner, the BSGA Column will remain a staple of the Sign Update content. In this most recent edition by David Allen, president of the BSGA, he tackles how to meet a customers’ expectations, even when it doesn’t seem possible.

I commented on a LinkedIn post, not much in that, it happens, maybe you do too.

The post showed a sign being installed. The catch? In the grand scheme of things not much, but the two installers were working on the roof of the van.

Where’s this going you ask? How often have you ordered a product or a service, and it’s not lived up to the billing, or to expectations?

Living up to expectations

Nothing is perfect, and I’m guilty of being so eager to please that sometimes I have given a client a date for their job only to have to push it back.

Not only did I end up feeling bad, but I’ve also made the client cross and probably lost them. I’ve often questioned why I’ve done it as the stress levels ended up far higher than they should be and no one is happy.

But here’s the rub, over the years doing what we’ve promised has been appreciated, sure we don’t get it right all the time, but doing what we say when
we said we would, gives us a better sense of satisfaction.

But what happens when a product or service doesn’t live up to its billing? That can be another matter entirely.

The importance of strong relationships

It’s then you really see the value of having strong relationships with suppliers. There’s nothing worse than having the meeting being told about the service only to place an order and it arrive late or worse not at all.

I suppose it’s that sense of frustration that you can use to shape your own business. I’m sure that the person who organised the sign mentioned at the
start expected them to turn up with all the equipment necessary to install her shiny new sign.

Equipment and staff training all cost money, money that is most cases you’ll have to wait 30 to 60 days to get in your bank.

But turning up when you said you would with the equipment to do a safe install is probably the minimum you would expect. I bet we’ve all had a client ask for designs and the promise of plenty of work to come. I thought I’d become immune to this, but I still get caught out. One such was a regular customer who bought a large fleet from a dealer.

The design was done and I’ll admit a few of the promised vehicles landed but it wasn’t long before the trucks stopped and it turned out they were being sorted by the dealer.

Having worked my socks off for the customer and gone above and beyond to accommodate these new vehicles to have them taken from us was I suppose as upsetting as much as anything that the client thought nothing of giving the dealer the work really in my mind devalued all the effort I’d put in. I guess it will be common to be promised the earth only for the final job to be underwhelming or worse it never turns up.

Over the years I think I’ve experienced just about all the above. Think of that job lost to a competitor only to discover they don’t have the equipment to do a professional job or clients not living up to their side of the deal and thinking nothing of taking artwork they haven’t paid for elsewhere.

You hope you learn all the lessons and when these things happen and won’t get caught out, but you want to see the best in people so it’s inevitable that at times we’ll get caught out. I do believe there’s plenty of customers out there that do value honesty and integrity.

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