Why delivery isn't enough

Customers are absolutely buying deliverables.

Let’s not overcorrect that.

They want the thing to work. They want it done. They want what was promised, delivered.

While recording this week's episode, “The one with the slow CX”, Sarah Kinard helped me realize something important.

Deliverables are no longer the only thing customers are buying.

They’re also buying confidence.

Not confidence in the abstract. Confidence that the deliverables will actually show up. On time. In context. Without surprise, drama, or last-minute heroics.

Sarah explained it this way:

That last part matters. “They’re supposed to get what they’re buying.”

That’s where many organizations get this wrong.

We treat delivery like differentiation. Customers don’t. For them, delivery is the baseline. What they’re really paying attention to is how confident they feel that delivery is actually going to happen.

This shows up everywhere.

In CX, we talk a lot about moments and journeys. But confidence is built between moments. In the handoffs. In the explanations. In how risk is addressed instead of avoided.

As teams get leaner and entry-level roles disappear, there are fewer buffers. Fewer people smoothing things out behind the scenes. Fewer layers absorbing uncertainty before it reaches the customer.

So customers feel it.

They ask more questions. They want more visibility. They look for reassurance, even when they can’t quite explain why.

That’s not them being difficult. That’s them responding to risk.

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A break before we continue

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Back to the conversation

What I keep coming back to is this.

When customers buy deliverables, they’re buying what. When they buy confidence, they’re buying whether.

Whether this will go the way it’s supposed to. Whether they’ll be left holding risk they didn’t agree to. Whether someone is paying attention.

CX lives in that space.

Not in promising delivery, but in consistently showing that delivery is under control.

And when organizations miss that, they don’t just lose loyalty. They create anxiety. Even when they technically do everything right.

Your turn: Where do your customers seem to be asking for confidence, even when they say they’re just asking for deliverables?

Put those tray tables up and buckle those seat belts. Let’s go!

-Rick

P.S. If you know someone who might benefit from this week’s newsletter, please feel free to forward this to them. Or they can sign up here.

What’s on tap this week?…

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Host - Rick Denton Rick believes the best meals are served outside and require a passport

🎤🎞️The One With the Slow CX – Sarah Kinard E246🎧 Listen on any Pod app

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