My friend goes to the gym 5-6 days a week and has the same routine: work out and then end with 25 minutes in the sauna. He shared the following experience (and dot!) with me that I now share with you.
“When I finished my elliptical session this morning, I headed for the sauna like normal and found the sign on the door that the sauna was closed today. Ugh. The sauna is my favorite part of going to the gym – in fact, it’s the primary motivating factor for me on the days that I argue with myself about whether or not I should hit the snooze button or actually wake up and go to the gym. Meaning, I was very disappointed to find the sauna unavailable when I went to use it.
It reminded me of other dots and how it’s a bigger deal than it may have been had the expectations been communicated properly in advance. I was at the gym and in the sauna yesterday and there was no expectation that “tomorrow the sauna will not be available for cleaning”. I’ve had this routine at least a year and this is the first time I’ve ever noticed them close the sauna for an entire day for “deep cleaning and drying”. I don’t know if this is a new procedure for them, but, the more I processed the note, the more I went from disappointed that I couldn’t use the sauna to irritated that my expectations weren’t met.
The more I stewed over the sauna being unavailable, the more I realized that my disappointment was frustration and frustration could easily become anger — and then I started to envision the Venn diagram that points to why that’s happening.
Customers get disappointed when 1 of three things happen:
- Expectations are not met
- Communication is poor
- Their ability to do anything about the situation and/or be renumerated is limited
Put those 3 things in the Venn circles. At the point where 2 of the 3 of those things meet, you go from disappointment to frustration.
If my expectations are not met and the communication is poor, now I’m frustrated. I couldn’t use the sauna, and they didn’t give me desired/expected notice – now I’m frustrated. ALL they had to do was post the SAME SIGN on the sauna door YESTERDAY and I would have been disappointed in unmet expectations this morning, but I wouldn’t have been frustrated because I would have gone to the gym knowing what was going to happen.
But, where the 3 things intersect at the center of the Venn Diagram, that’s where you get anger.
I didn’t get to use the sauna as expected – disappointment; AND, I didn’t get warned about it in advance – frustration; AND, there’s nothing I can do about it (they won’t give me a discount, they won’t guarantee not to do it this way again, they won’t update their app to give notice of future closures, etc. etc. etc.) – anger. The implications of the Venn diagram are greater when there’s something more at stake than 1 day in the sauna.”
As you know, I love Venn diagrams and will definitely add this model to my toolbox of service and communication techniques.
Thanks much, bg!
