As small business owners, my partner and I take pride in the service we offer our customers -- not just the copywriting and art direction work we do, but the stuff that falls under "respect" and "building relationships."
We never submit work late.
We never present less than requested.
We make strategic suggestions where possible.
If the work done is significantly less than estimated, we discount it.
We try to be accommodating with deadlines and meeting times.
We pay our vendors on time, and usually immediately, even if we haven't been paid ourselves.
We say thank you.
Most of our clients, we're happy to say, are stellar. They love our work, they're apologetic when things go wrong on their end or need to be turned around faster than is realistic, they pass our agency's name around and they come back again and again.
But then there are the clueless ones. The ones who show up late or don't offer you a glass of water in a two-hour meeting. The ones who get angry at you for their own incompetence. The ones who never show appreciation, don't return calls or emails unless they need something from you, or say thanks. And the ones who don't pay on time -- strike that -- the ones who ask you to resend the invoice twice, take six months to pay and don't have the courtesy to apologize.
When we first started out on our own, we heard a lot of horror stories from other business owners about how tough it is out there. It's true, there can be dry spells but it's not really that tough. It simply requires doing a great job, being open and transparent, showing respect for your customers, your employees, your vendors, and whenever humanly possible saying thank you.
In short, it simply demands being a civilized human being.
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