Forget about Exceeding your Customers' Expectations

I heard a story of an airline in Europe as an example of how “good” it is to exceed customers’ expectations.

"There was a strike by one of the airlines and so the other airline was exceptionally busy. The airline that was still flying provided its callers with an introductory message along the lines of, “due to an industrial dispute by one of our competitors, we are experiencing an increase number of calls. We will be with you in 8 minutes”. At the 4 minute mark of waiting, an agent came on the line and took the call."

This was cited as an example of exceeding customer expectations and that this was a good thing! I suggest it's not good for the following reason.

To inform callers of the delay is quite good. It lets the caller know about a problem. The problem is in telling the caller that they will have to wait 8 minutes but getting to them in 4! Suppose the customer thought, “OK, I’ll just put the phone down and go and do this other thing I need to do. I’ve got 8 minutes”. They return to the phone after 6 minutes, just to make sure they’re back in time, and they hear, “beep, beep, beep”! Why? The agent comes onto the line after 4 minutes and is saying “hello, hello, hello”. After 1 minute the agent releases the call because who knows if and when the caller will return! That’s bad customer service! In that situation, the agent would need to wait for at least the 8 minute mark. The message here is:-

Forget about exceeding customers’ expectations!

Meet them everytime consistantly!

What do you think?