Every five or six months somebody on one of the in-plant discussion sites or blogs raises the question about dealing with rush jobs. You all know the drill: a customer shows up at the in-plant with a job that must be completed in an impossible time frame, and the in-plant manager asks for input on how others would deal with it.
A fair number on respondents come back with horror stories of their own. They describe inconsiderate, disorganized customers who can’t plan their own work and expect the in-plant to bail them out. Then, to add insult to injury, many times the in-plant gets the job out on time, usually involving some heroic effort (and overtime) and the damnable customer fails to pick it up. The job sits there for days while the in-plant folks stew.
Whine, whine, whine!
Other respondents take a completely different approach—one that I subscribe to. Some of us see a rush job as an opportunity to add value, to show how an in-plant can contribute to the core purpose of the organization. Rush jobs are an opportunity to demonstrate knock-your-socks-off customer service.
My first job as an in-plant manager was at the City of Austin, Texas. I reported to a guy named V. Glenn Cootes, who was the director of Public Information. Glenn was a newspaperman and had deep roots both in writing/editing and production scheduling and deadlines. Glenn usually dealt with very high profile projects, so when he was involved in something you knew it was important. He was also used to a high-pressure work environment—an environment where production time was a luxury that was not always available.
One day Glenn called me to his office to pick up a job. We went over the details, and as I left I said something like “I’ll have this for you tomorrow,” thinking that he would be impressed.
He was not!
I’ll never forget Glenn’s response: “If I wanted it tomorrow, that’s when I’d ask for it.” (In other words, he wanted it today.)
At the time I was a little upset. I was sure he didn’t know how busy we were, or how short handed, or many rush jobs were ahead of his. Turns out, Glenn had just handed me one of the most valuable customer service lessons of my career.
You see, the important thing was not my workload, it was his. As a support service, my entire reason for existing was to help my customers do their jobs. I had no idea what pressures kept him from getting the job to me earlier, nor should that be important. What’s important is that as a support service manager I need to do everything possible to make my customer successful.
The issue of delivery dates and rush charges is one of the common themes in our business. All too often we treat customer needs as an imposition. In fact, one of the recurring themes that usually surfaces when two or more in-plant managers get together is how to handle rush jobs. Many in-plant managers charge for rush jobs. Others refuse to give them top priority. Still others do them but complain. But some—those I’d like to call “enlightened”—relish them.
Tom Peters, writing in In Search of Excellence, told the story of a car salesman who sold more cars than anyone in the country. His mantra? “I want to sell you a lemon so you’ll see how I deliver with the Service Department.” He was being facetious, to be sure. But Peters’ point was that the car salesman understood that his primary role was not selling cars, it was customer service, and his job wasn’t finished when the customer drove away in the shiny new car.
As in-plant managers, aren’t we in the same boat? It’s not about getting stuff printed—it’s about helping customers be successful. It seems to me that we should take a page from the car salesman’s book. Maybe we should welcome what may appear to be unreasonable customer expectations. Maybe our mantra should be “I want your rush job so you can see how I can help you be successful.”
Thanks Glenn.
- People:
- Glenn
- V. Glenn Cootes
Ray Chambers, CGCM, MBA, has invested over 30 years managing and directing printing plants, copy centers, mail centers and award-winning document management facilities in higher education and government.
Most recently, Chambers served as vice president and chief information officer at Juniata College. Chambers is currently a doctoral candidate studying Higher Education Administration at the Pennsylvania State University (PSU). His research interests include outsourcing in higher education and its impact on support services in higher education and managing support services. He also consults (Chambers Management Group) with leaders in both the public and private sectors to help them understand and improve in-plant printing and document services operations.