The Last Ten Percent

The Story
One of my clients was having trouble returning phone calls and emails to me because he was very busy with many projects. His three biggest projects were all nearing an end, and due to some planning errors, they were all just a few days past due.

	When your clients call, and you can only give them excuses, you're going to lose their confidence, and eventually their business.

I met him at his office at the end of the business day to go talk over dinner. As we were leaving, the phone rang. It was one of his clients asking when the project would be delivered. He promised they would have it that night. As soon as he hung up, he sat at his computer and worked out a few last minute pieces, politely asking if I could wait for another ten minutes. I smiled and sat down, reading one of the many great books on collected photography he has in his studio.

A minute later, the phone rang. It was another client asking when their project would be delivered. He told her that he was just going to get some dinner, and would finish it as soon as he got back. Hanging up, he then started working on that other project, finishing up a few pieces so that it would be ready to go when he got back from dinner.

Sure enough, the phone rang a third time, and he made the same promise and began working on their project, ignoring the other two, as soon as he hung up.

After questioning him a bit, I found out that he is consistently switching between the three projects, doing a little bit more each time, but never finishing any of them. Each project is 90% done, but it's taking him weeks to finish the last 10% because he's not simply focusing on them one at a time.

	The owner of this garage drained 90% of the water from his pipes before the winter came. Notice the Porsche under all that ice from the last 10%?

The Problem
We see this all the time with the businesses that contact us. We call it suffering from the Last Ten Percent. Plenty of companies suffer from it, but it's an easy problem to remedy. At it's root, you're trying to make everyone happy. What makes this attitude a problem is that by juggling them, you're not making any of them happy.

New Logic
It's time to turn you on to some new logic. Given the above situation, you've already got unhappy clients. It also teaches us that juggling them makes them unhappy. So, if the best you can do is juggle, you're guaranteeing to make them unhappy.

Enter this new logic: pick one to become happy, and you're improving your situation. That's right, pick just one client that you're going to dedicate your resources and time to, and finish their project first. In this way, you instantly get a 33% boost in approval. Still, we can make this better.

Using Perception And Communication
In all reality, when you deliver a product or service to a client, they're not going to use it right away. They're probably waiting for other aspects of their business to come around. More importantly, it's entirely possible they have no idea how long it takes anybody in your business to finish your work.

One sure fire way to make your clients happier is simply to keep them informed. As long as you call them first, you're going to look more responsible and attentive to their needs than if you had juggled them. Tell them honestly that the project is taking a bit longer than usual, but reassure them that you're on it. Give them a fair new estimate of when it may be delivered, and take into consideration which jobs you have prioritized ahead of it.

By simply communicating with your client, and being honest with them, you may find that you may never need to juggle again.

	B.U.P.'s are always lurking around your business, looking for the worst possible moment to come play with you.

The Big Ugly Problem (B.U.P.)
If you find that you're being faced with having to juggle from time to time, you have bigger problems. There's no reason why your business shouldn't be able to handle all the work it gets. If you claim to sell a product or service, then you should be able to deliver it.

If you get more clients than you had expected, then you should gear up your facilities to meet the needs of those clients. All too often, managers see more income as more profit and a higher profit ratio. This is misleading, unfortunately. More profit, yes. Higher profit ratio, no. With new clients comes more overhead and expenditures. You'll need more people to handle the load of work, and you may need new systems and processes as well.

Don't let your B.U.P. rear it's ugly head more than once. The first time you realize you have a problem, you should get right to work on fixing it at the root. If you continue to let it come back, the people who are going to pay are your clients and your employees. Eventually if you ignore the B.U.P., you're going to lose the best of both of them, and that marks the beginning of the end.