Don´t roll your eyes at the following tip.
If I profit from it, you may also profit from it.
Why Punctuality is so Important
Punctuality displays a person's respect for people and time. In a scheduled appointment, the late-comer usually gives an impression that he doesn't value the other person's time or considers his time more important than that of the other.
What factual role Punctuality plays in Business
We do business for our customers. Not for ourselves.
A customer is satisfied when these three conditions are met:
Promised Price - Promised Quality - Promised Delivery time
If only one is not met, then a customer is unhappy. As time cannot be restored, promised delivery time (= punctuality) is the most crucial one.
What else Punctuality shows about You
Other people are - even if subconsciously - "sizing" you up by your punctuality, or lack thereof.
And not being punctual does irreparable harm to your sales, to your business, and to your reputation because it destroys the relationship to your customer.
Why Lack of Punctuality harms your Relationships
This is why people would suspect why you are late:
1. You don’t respect your own time
2. You don’t respect the other person’s time
And one of the most important psychological needs is the need for respect. Check out this http://bit.ly/maslowpyramidofneeds
Either way, if you are not punctual, you are screwing yourself out of a lot of sales, of a solid reputation, and of a lot of deals. Nobody wants to do business or give money to people who disrespect their time.
Why being Punctual is so Powerful today
Being punctual gives you a - free!!! - head start in a world full of undisciplined wannabes who can't be bothered by such trivial nonsense as doing what they say they will do, when they say they will do it.
This is why being punctual makes you stand out head and shoulders above your strongest competition.
Most people simply can’t be bothered. Most people don’t respect their own time. And, most people don’t respect other peoples’ time, either.
And clients know this, and - consciously or unconsciously - judge you on this.
For certain clients, when launching a new product and they need a patent application, one minute late might as well be a year late.
Lawyers have an Advantage when it comes to Punctuality
We are used to deadlines since baby age.
It is ingrained into us that "after the deadline" is always "before the deadline".
A deadline represents freedom.
A deadline is healing and a blessing.
A deadline creates a measurable threshold.
There is not much which is better for life success and happiness than deadlines.
What I do to be more Punctual
I do not take an order without asking for a deadline. And I do not take an order without asking for a retainer payment. And I do not take an order without having a clear idea of the expected quality. Rare exceptions prove the rule.
And I have installed a deadline manager in each one of our firm´s offices.
And I send those idiots away that try to convince me that of the three "Low Price - Best Quality - Fast Delivery time - you can only have two at one time".
What I do when I cannot be Punctual at All
From the three "Price - Quality - Delivery time", the Quality is the most arguable and the most difficult to measure feature of a given piece of work.
Therefore, IF I realize that really punctual I cannot be, at all, I will deliver whatever I have achieved until when the deadline is about to expire.
In my case, the result is always of a good quality because I am currently doing what I have been doing for more than 25 years. This usually fulfills what my clients want.
And if I myself am not happy with my own work because of quality, I will put in extra time after initial delivery of my first piece of work, and deliver an improved extra piece of work after having punctually delivered the first piece of work.
The extra piece of work I then give free of charge.
That goes without saying.
Anyway, bottom line?
If you want clients to love and rave about you, be punctual.
It truly separates the men from the boys.
Martin "Being punctual is NOT a Question of Time" Schweiger
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