I can recall on many occasions when my coworkers at Nordstrom would tell customers that their transfer from another store would arrive in "three to four days". Sure, a transfer did normally take three to four days, but more often than not transfers took up to two weeks to process, especially during sale times.
But yet, these newbie salespeople continued to get themselves in trouble when the customer would come in to the store and the shoe was not in yet. They didn't listen when we told them to tell the customer that it would take 7-10 business days. Then, if the shoe came in earlier, the customer was surprised and delighted that it came in "so quick".
I've talked about under-promising and over-delivering here before. My fellow writer, Gary Bourgeault at ManagersRealm also reminds us not to make promises we can't keep. It's an idea to learn early on in your retail career and it saves alot of headache and stress :)
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