By: Jeff Toister (submitted by Carmen Gass)

Many years ago, I managed a customer service team for a catalog company that sold imported items from Eastern Europe, including antiques. The antiques were often unique and were slightly different than the pictures on our website or in our catalog.

Russian samovars were a particular challenge. These are highly decorated tea urns that come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. A quick look at the ebay page – for samovars can illustrate the variety.

This created an expectation management problem for my team. Read more here.