Olympics - Expectation Setting

When I worked at IBM in technical support we used to wonder why HP was always ahead of us in customer satisfaction. One day we were told that HP had a different way of setting their customers' expectation when it came to estimating the when a problem would be resolved. We used to tell our customers the truth based on historical data. I don't remember the exact numbers but let's say that we would tell our customer that we would have their problem solved within 48 hours. Since this was the average, on each individual service call, the chances were just as good that we would not make the estimate. The result was that customer expectations were often not met on that particular metric.

HP compiled the same data we did, and for argument sake let's assume their historical data also showed that they normally took 48 hours to solve a problem. The difference was that they would tell their customer that it would take 72 hours. The result is that their customers' expectations were set lower and were generally met if not exceeded. They always came out ahead of us in customer satisfaction. No kidding.

So now the Olympics.

The athletes of Olympic host countries always have a lot of pressure on them but I just feel that too much was laid down on them this time around. Seeing Melissa Hollingsworth's emotional news conference brought that feeling home for me. Of course she was upset. What sparked me to want to write this entry was her statement that she wanted to let Canada know that she had done her best. No athlete should have to defend their result to a bunch of beer drinking television viewers. I felt sorry for her and could only imagine that she must have felt tremendous pressure to feel the need to make that kind of statement.

While I think it is great that Canadian athletes received much more support than usual in the years leading up to these Olympic games (though it would be nice to see the sponsors stick around) we may have paid them, and the millions of Team Canada fans across this country, a disservice. Own the Podium. Tops in the medal count. Who will be the first athlete to win a gold medal on Canadian soil? Those very moving CTV Olympic adverts with our medal hopefuls filmed in slow-mo in all their glory. I believe. We all did and fell for it. Our expectations were set - very effectively and very high indeed. But expectations were set too high and now many of the intended recipients of all of these various programs, athletes and fans, are starting to show their dissatisfaction.

Maybe thirty medals should never have been mentioned by anyone. Possibly nobody should have made the bold statement that we would be on top of the medal count. But, most certainly, none of us should be complaining about Canada's results. These athletes have had more pressure thrown on them than most of us could ever imagine.

Let's enter this last week of competition with heads held high, with pride and hope for more but not expectations or any feeling of entitlement to more.

Go Canada Go!

Let me know what you think about what you have just read. Please and thanks!