Managing Expectations

Expectations are a funny thing.  In school, classes lasted a certain number of minutes, in law school it was 65 minutes.  If the professor went over, even by a couple of minutes, students quickly became restless.  They would begin packing up their bags – the longer the professor went, the louder the packing became.  But, if we were having a review session where the professor clearly stated the session would last no fewer than two hours, everyone was rejoicing when class was dismissed a few minutes early.

So, when our builders told us that our final meeting with the builder will take place about one month from our last design meeting, our expectations were set.  We would have our final meeting no longer than one month after our last design meeting.  Well, today is the one month mark and we have not heard from the builder.  So, no matter when the builder calls to set up the meeting, we will naturally feel like he has been slacking and has failed to meet our expectations.

But, if he had told us that the final meeting with the builder will take place about two months after our last design meeting and he calls next week, we would have been ecstatic and felt like he was working hard.

Across the board builders are famous for taking longer than anticipated.  Do you think that builders would receive fewer complaints and have overall more satisfied customers if they managed expectations by providing reasonably attainable goals (and meeting those goals) instead of aiming too high and repeatedly failing?  I do.