“BUT I NEED IT BEFORE CHRISTMAS!”
Have you heard this before? Clients put the pressure on you to meet the demands of finishing their order before Christmas, so we put pressure on our lab, our framer, album company and somehow manage to get it done in time. Only to be told by the client “I’m just so busy, I won’t be able to pick it up until the New Year.” HUH? How could they make us rush and stress and then not even bother to come pick it up?
We made new rules and tell clients right from the start that there’s a (generous to us) cutoff point for Christmas orders, and do not give them a “I’ll try my best,” because that inevitably turns into “But you promised it would be ready!”
If you set the rules initially, then you won’t have the battles later on.