Rant Customer Rant

[Notarealsignguy]

I think that some might think that their procrastination is equivalent to a "bad situation". Some people - you're right - get put behind the eight ball despite their best efforts. Other people let the proofs mellow in their inbox for a few days, avoid being decisive, can't be reached, avoid paying, have poor communication habits and generally put themselves in the bad situation. I don't pity the latter bunch.

Then we're back to the project management triangle. Do you want the job done on time? Do you want the job done right? Do you want the job on budget? Pick two.

Speed is valuable to our customers. I think it should have a price tag on it.

Whatever their reasoning is for the rush is irrelevant. I agree that it is annoying but it doesn't change the situation or what you are able to gain from their self created (or not) predicament.

The on time, right or cheap thing is cute and makes people feel power but it's a fallacy. You can do stuff cheap, good and fast. That is not an impossible task by any stretch and we all know this. There are examples everywhere you look of businesses that do exactly this day in and day out, they are typically the ones making the real coin. The ones that sit back, bellyache about having to work faster than they feel like, make excuses about the files not being good enough and blame their last minute careless mistakes on the customer for rushing them will not set your business apart from the others. Customer's want solutions not obstacles. You decide which lane you choose to ride in.

 

[Signarama Jockey]

Whatever their reasoning is for the rush is irrelevant. I agree that it is annoying but it doesn't change the situation or what you are able to gain from their self created (or not) predicament.

In my opinion, a job that we have a shorter turn time on should cost more. As I said, speed has value to it, and I personally believe that speed should be billable.

The on time, right or cheap thing is cute and makes people feel power but it's a fallacy. You can do stuff cheap, good and fast.

I'd like to contract you to make fifty 10 foot by 10 foot banners for me. My budget is $10 and I need them in ten minutes. Prove to me you can do it cheap good and fast.

That is not an impossible task by any stretch and we all know this. There are examples everywhere you look of businesses that do exactly this day in and day out, they are typically the ones making the real coin. The ones that sit back, bellyache about having to work faster than they feel like, make excuses about the files not being good enough and blame their last minute careless mistakes on the customer for rushing them will not set your business apart from the others. Customer's want solutions not obstacles. You decide which lane you choose to ride in.

Let me know where to send the files for my banners and prove me wrong. Once you get them finished in 10 minutes I will gladly send you the $10.

It's ridiculous, right? How can you possibly print 10 banners in 10 minutes? How can you make sure that all the grommets are placed right and the hemming looks perfect? And how can you do all of that work for $10? That's exactly the point. That's reality.

Want it fast and perfect? Pay me for my time and effort.
Want it fast and cheap? Accept that some corners may be cut.
Want it cheap and perfect? Give me the time to do it at my pace.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

In my opinion, a job that we have a shorter turn time on should cost more. As I said, speed has value to it, and I personally believe that speed should be billable.


I'd like to contract you to make fifty 10 foot by 10 foot banners for me. My budget is $10 and I need them in ten minutes. Prove to me you can do it cheap good and fast.


Let me know where to send the files for my banners and prove me wrong. Once you get them finished in 10 minutes I will gladly send you the $10.

It's ridiculous, right? How can you possibly print 10 banners in 10 minutes? How can you make sure that all the grommets are placed right and the hemming looks perfect? And how can you do all of that work for $10? That's exactly the point. That's reality.

Want it fast and perfect? Pay me for my time and effort.
Want it fast and cheap? Accept that some corners may be cut.
Want it cheap and perfect? Give me the time to do it at my pace.

You're flopping all over the place here, you brought up your boss taking rush orders, that you are able to knock out but annoy you. I never said unprofitable, I said cheap. Big difference there. Our ability to do jobs fast, slow, late or on time is all baked into our pricing, I just do not see any rationale for having this tiered structure. You make money doing work, period. The more you can squeeze out, the more you will make provided you aren't a bozo pricing jobs less than your cost. At the end of the day, I want to see asses and elbows, that is why you get out of bed and go to work every morning.
We paint a lot of scissor lifts for cheap, $1k blasted, epoxy primer, good 2k paint and decals. Most places can not beat that and every year we get truckloads of these things - 40/50 at a time and have 2 weeks tops to do them in addition to whatever else we have here. We cleanup on those things, fast cheap and good. I could turn my nose up at them and still be in business or raise my price and have them go somewhere else but why? You're talking $100-200k @ 20-30% net a year for doing a job that takes nothing away from the business itself and adds no additional overhead

 

[Humble PM]

Lovely to meet you today, and no problem with deadline. Send the files over via wetransfer by midnight, and we can run your prints, and meet deadline. I'll be in early so I'll drop you in before the normal print queue. 300dpi, Adobe RGB, 300ppi max quality jpeg.
Turn up at 06:30, link to google drive, 8 of 40 files are over 500MB, rest are zero. OK, I'll have a look - files are showing as .tif, but Photoshop throwa a fault, as does RIP. Try (apple) preview - files open, do a save, and turns out that they should be .psd, but they identify as .tif. Whatever.
16bit, confused identity 300 p/cm files, with layers.
Thank goodness for Automator, but lost the hour headstart that was mentally budgeted for the discount job.

Note to self - stop being nice to others, consider being kind to self.

/rant

 

[Gino]

Ya know, signjockey......... you oughta quit your job now.... RIGHT NOW, while you still know everything and start your own business. You could then do it all the right way.... as you've been telling all of us. You have quite the grip on business and what customers want and need and how business SHOULD be conducted.

 

[Boudica]

In my opinion, a job that we have a shorter turn time on should cost more. As I said, speed has value to it, and I personally believe that speed should be billable.


I'd like to contract you to make fifty 10 foot by 10 foot banners for me. My budget is $10 and I need them in ten minutes. Prove to me you can do it cheap good and fast.


Let me know where to send the files for my banners and prove me wrong. Once you get them finished in 10 minutes I will gladly send you the $10.

It's ridiculous, right? How can you possibly print 10 banners in 10 minutes? How can you make sure that all the grommets are placed right and the hemming looks perfect? And how can you do all of that work for $10? That's exactly the point. That's reality.

Want it fast and perfect? Pay me for my time and effort.
Want it fast and cheap? Accept that some corners may be cut.
Want it cheap and perfect? Give me the time to do it at my pace.

We aren't the cheapest place in town, but we are the best. So as the PM I turn-around as quickly as possible, and as perfect as possible. Your time and effort as an employee are meaningless as far as the customer is concerned - you are getting paid regardless. Cutting corners is just slimy if someone is paying for quality work.
Rush fees are for training your customer to have realistic expectations. Only used as necessary when bad habits form.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

We aren't the cheapest place in town, but we are the best. So as the PM I turn-around as quickly as possible, and as perfect as possible. Your time and effort as an employee are meaningless as far as the customer is concerned - you are getting paid regardless. Cutting corners is just slimy if someone is paying for quality work.
Rush fees are for training your customer to have realistic expectations. Only used as necessary when bad habits form.

The trick is to ascertain which jobs are a real rush and which are not. Then sandbag the ones that aren't. If they're decent, it trains them, if they're always gonna be a pita, it runs them off. Win win

 

[Johnny Best]

Signarama jockey, your attitude towards rush jobs are what an employee feels. If you own your own shop and wanted to please customers and make some money fsst youtweak your empłoyees to operate on a high level of sucess in producing.
So with knowledge you give us here is seen from a different perspective. Try starting your own shop and come back to tell us the solution you have adapted to rush jobs.
If your an owner of a pirate ship and a gold laden ship is seen on the horizon you will yell out orders for all hands on deck and put the sails up to catch the wind to make some money. If you have a lazy and complaining crew you are not making money.

 

[Signarama Jockey]

Stress has consequences in the workplace and in life generally. If you push your employees too hard they will burn out and you will have to hire a replacement and re-train them. This will cost you time and ultimately money. It may seem more productive to push your employees hard, but it can backfire catastrophically. Occasionally, it is okay to rev up the engine on your car, but how long will your car last if all you do is mash on the gas pedal? And a car is a machine, not a person.

Yes, rush jobs add stress to my life. But, I do them. I clock in and I work until I clock out. I give it my best effort. I prefer to work in an orderly manner, because I believe that running around like a chicken with it's head cut off causes more mistakes. I like working smoothly and professionally, making sure that things get done properly. I do not like ricocheting from one task to the next in an ad hoc process because it creates more problems and costs the company more $ than it we earn. And it has the added effect of stressing the whole crew out.

I don't think I'm out of the mainstream on this. HR professionals have made entire careers about advising employees on how to manage the workers stress levels to increase morale and productivity.

But, really, my whole reason for posting in this thread was just to vent a little. Interrupting a complicated job I am working on is jarring, and I would be more productive if the job was simply put on my stack and I could get to it after I had finished instead of RIGHT NOW.

 

[Johnny Best]

"Rush jobs add stress to my life." Come on man. Get it together and move on. I have no sympathy for you. You sound like you have 30 seconds on the clock of a bomb and do not know which wire to cut........it's the blue one.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Stress has consequences in the workplace and in life generally. If you push your employees too hard they will burn out and you will have to hire a replacement and re-train them. This will cost you time and ultimately money. It may seem more productive to push your employees hard, but it can backfire catastrophically. Occasionally, it is okay to rev up the engine on your car, but how long will your car last if all you do is mash on the gas pedal? And a car is a machine, not a person.

Yes, rush jobs add stress to my life. But, I do them. I clock in and I work until I clock out. I give it my best effort. I prefer to work in an orderly manner, because I believe that running around like a chicken with it's head cut off causes more mistakes. I like working smoothly and professionally, making sure that things get done properly. I do not like ricocheting from one task to the next in an ad hoc process because it creates more problems and costs the company more $ than it we earn. And it has the added effect of stressing the whole crew out.

I don't think I'm out of the mainstream on this. HR professionals have made entire careers about advising employees on how to manage the workers stress levels to increase morale and productivity.

But, really, my whole reason for posting in this thread was just to vent a little. Interrupting a complicated job I am working on is jarring, and I would be more productive if the job was simply put on my stack and I could get to it after I had finished instead of RIGHT NOW.

Stress? We can come back to this once you start a shop. Wait til have to give your employees an IOU for half their paycheck, your CC is maxed out, bills late and you don't have enough work coming in to get you out of the hole. I had to "borrow" diesel fuel out of our customers equipment to run our compressor at one point in time. Or using gasoline to thin your paint because you don't have $50 for a can of reducer.
A job has never stressed me but owning a business has got the best of me many times over the years. A friend of mine always says, I wish I still had a job that I could quit.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

Occasionally, it is okay to rev up the engine on your car, but how long will your car last if all you do is mash on the gas pedal? And a car is a machine, not a person.

I mash the gas and if the car can't handle it I go buy one that can. There are plenty out there

 

[Gino]

signjockey................ how 'bout knocking off the old cliches and crap ?? They don't even pertain to you.

My question to you is...... do you REALLY work in a sign shop or just play pretend ?? You're acting like someone who doesn't have a clue about this industry, business or people in general.

 

[Boudica]

signjockey................ how 'bout knocking off the old cliches and crap ?? They don't even pertain to you.

My question to you is...... do you REALLY work in a sign shop or just play pretend ?? You're acting like someone who doesn't have a clue about this industry, business or people in general.

Maybe he's a teacher.

 

[Signarama Jockey]

I mash the gas and if the car can't handle it I go buy one that can. There are plenty out there

Not constantly. If you abuse and put stress on your car, you are destroying it little by little. And yes, you can always buy a new one.

You can pull out your wallet and take cash out and give it to someone else to replace the car that you destroyed.

And then you can do it again when you destroy this new one prematurely...

...and again...

...and again...

OR you could drive the car the way it was intended and get your money's worth out of it.

It is entirely up to you.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I think a lot of employment applications ask "Can you perform in a fast-paced environment?" .. I see now why they ask that question.

When I was a teenager, I worked at Waffle House. That is a fast paced environment, you got a lot of things going on at once. All those foods cook at different times, bacon takes 5 mins, hashbrowns 7 mins, eggs 2 mins, toast 1 min, waffle 4 mins. If you're good, you can time all that to finish at once to give a hot meal. Now, while you're cooking that and master the time.. get interrupted for 30 seconds to take another order... now you're juggling 2. Take 5 more orders and now you're really going. It takes skill and fast thinking to really do that job. To this day I still look back and STILL think back when I was cooking that job took serious skill. Now, I work for myself... I got 80 jobs right now, managing client, fabricator, shipper, installer, permits and GC. Invoicing, bookkeeping, bidding. Phone rings all day and hundreds of e-mails and texts. It takes skill to manage all that and make systems / routines to ensure I don't miss things. Do I make mistakes and forget things? Sometimes.. but that's the price you pay for being able to handle the work. If I were you, I'd be embarrassed bragging about how you only one to focus on one thing. I can't do it, but if I did... that would be a big limitation.

 

[Johnny Best]

You guys are going to stress the jockey. He will be going to HR about nobody agreeing with him. He is riding Stress in the 6th race tomorrow in a claimed. Odds are 10-1.

 

[ColorCrest]

Signarama Jockey and anybody else interested, should be aware that solutions to “rush” have already been created and put into practice a rather long time ago.

See the attached image of a work order dated over 36 years ago.


Other than the date of Dec 1987, especially notice the first line item as being specified with a service time; 2-Hour. Options for this item, film developing in this case, were 1-hour, 2-hour, 4-hour, and 24-hour. The 1-hour charge would have been $10 for the quickest turnaround and of course less for the later turnaround times. Normal turnaround for this and many other services and products was a 4-hour option, in by 10am out by 2pm. Also notice there is no “rush” as there is no such thing, much like FedEx, but that’s another story.

Both ownership and employees should understand that when there is a viable system to manage the madness, especially if it makes them more profitable, then the madness might actually be invited. “Your lack of planning is making me more money” is a familiar cliche.

So, just like FedEx, offer service level options, as products and materials already have them, correct?

It pays for shops like this…

EDITED TO ADD: If you're truly interested, I can help with software. See me while I'm still a merchant member here at Signs 101.

 

[Signarama Jockey]

Wow. Okay. Seems like everyone is pretty pissed off at the notion that sometimes I get stressed out. Haha... salty.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

So you can't handle more than one task... and spend your bosses time online talking in circles. Good example of today's employee pool that's out there.