Whos got your back?
by Guest Author
I made a very bold statement today when I was talking to a new client about developing systems for them.
We dont ever make any mistakes
My statement did not relate to the development of systems but rather when I used our printing business as an example.
Now of course we DO make mistakes ... internally, but as far as the clients see we dont! How? We have checks and balances in place.
This is not rocket science ... no programming required :) Well ok we used some but you dont need to.
Let me explain by way of an example.
Every quote, job status notification and invoice that gets emailed to the client, also gets emailed to Shane. These are all generated automatically, and 99.9% of the time they are perfect, but every now and then there is something that stands out. Things like an odd amount, or an odd looking email address ... Shane picks this up and alerts me. This means we can address it before it is ever an issue.
Second example: Mark does the artwork for a print job. We ALWAYS send an electronic proof to the client, but instead of Mark sending the proof directly to the client, he sends it to me and I send it to the client.
OK I can hear the cries of thats inefficient! .... well, its nowhere as inefficient as sending the client a proof with an obvious mistake on it!
Im not saying Mark makes mistakes ... in fact he is one of the best graphic designers Ive ever worked with. He is very particular about things and unlike a lot of other graphic designers I have worked with he has excellent grammar and spelling skills ... but hey, we all miss things (yep even me!). So it doesnt matter who you are, you need something or someone to check up on you! Something I learned many years ago in software development ... you never rely on checking your own work ... someone else will pick up problems you could never find. No-one as quick as your client! So by having a double check before we send something to the client we look much more professional and we keep our clients happy!!!
So, who has your back in those rare instances where you make a mistake?
Home