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Expecting the Worst
Terry Riley · July 2, 2004

Have you ever had a business trip where everything - and I mean everything - went perfectly?

Me neither.

Yet while paging through a periodical that targets business travelers, I noticed that the people in the ads appear to be on trips that couldn't be more pleasant.

What gives?

I fly with the same airlines as the pictured passenger who is sitting next to an elegant seatmate while being attended to by attractive and cheery flight attendants. I rent from the same rental car agency as the driver who is standing in the sun in his perfectly pressed suit next to his flawlessly detailed, shiny new vehicle. I stay in the same hotels as the guest who is shown to be checking with the help of a smiling and eager desk clerk.

Well none of this happens to me.

My experiences are typically different - much different - than those depicted.

Where are the crying kids I often find myself sitting next to on airplanes?

Where is the beater that I sometimes get stuck with at the rental car agency?

Where is the apathetic clerk that I must deal with when checking into a hotel?

Where are the delays? Where is the rain? Where are the lines? Where is the aggravation?

Having more than a few miles under my belt, the ads for travel services don't make me long to pack up and get on the road. If anything, they make me feel that when I do travel, I'm being gypped.

No elegant seatmate, no shiny new car, no eager desk clerk.

I realize that marketing is all about showing products and services in the best light, but by monkeying around with my expectations, aren't these travel providers setting me up to be disappointed? According to Dr. Anthony Pratkanis, they are, and it's not just me that is poised to be disappointed.

Dr. Pratkanis, a psychology professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz and an expert in the field of persuasion, says, "Marketing travel services (any services for that matter) is a double-edged sword. In order to sell the service, you have to raise expectations. But if - and when - that service turns out not to meet those expectations, it is perceived as poorer than if the person hadn't had his expectations raised in the first place."

Moreover, the greater the difference between one's raised expectations of service and his perception of poor delivery of it, the greater the negative feeling associated with the provider of that service.

For instance, departing 10 minutes late is one thing; having your flight cancelled is another thing altogether. Being switched from a Ford to a Chevy is one thing; moving from a full-size sedan to a sub-compact is also another thing altogether. Being assigned a hotel room in the East wing instead of the West wing is one thing; shuffled from a suite to a standard room… well, you get the idea.

Interestingly it is also differences between expectations and performance that provide companies opportunities to make an even better impression on their customers than had they not failed to live up to those expectations in the first place.

Or as Dr. Pratkanis puts it, "If a service provider acts to correct a problem that occurs as a function of a significant difference between what a traveler expected and what was provided, then the traveler's sentiment about the company will become more positive.

That is, if a traveler's situation is improved in the face of rapidly falling expectations, he or she will feel pretty good about the provider." (Of course, the same works in reverse too. When you have the rug pulled out from under you as your expectations are rising, your opinion of the provider will sink dramatically.)

So what does this treatise on expectation and delivery of expected services mean to you?

Well, if you want to return from a trip feeling good about the experience, go ahead and hope for the best... but expect the worst.

Dr. Terry Riley is a psychologist and travel security authority based in Santa Cruz, Calif. He is the editor of the Web site Applied Psychology.