One of the secrets to meeting and exceeding your deadlines is not to tell customers when you can do something for them, but rather to ask them when they would like to have it. You have to understand their timeframe. Often, their deadlines may not be nearly as soon or as critical as you think. They may need something in a week that you thought they would want in a day. There are two main benefits that come from properly assessing your customers' needs. The first is the opportunity to exceed their expectations and get products and services to them more quickly than needed. The second is to schedule your work and your production to meet their needs, not yours.
Work first to get your customer's ideal deadline. Then, if necessary, negotiate on the actual deadline with which you both can live.
While giving a guided tour of his Phoenix-based promotional-item company, Jim was explaining how deadlines have changed, and how much faster our lives move. Just a decade ago, he said, when an order came in for custom-printed items like business cards or coffee mugs, his company was excited if they could complete the order and ship it back to the customer in ten days. Today, these orders often come in with the first mail at 8:00 a.m., and are finished and headed out of the plant by 10:00 a.m. It's a fast-paced world.
TAKEAWAY
In today's fast-paced world, an ongoing practice of
under-promising and over-delivering will win you
more customers than you can possibly imagine.