You pulled an all-nighter for a customer. Should the customer know?

You are working on a project with a hard deadline for a good customer. In order to deliver on time you must work late on it the night before. You end up finishing at 4 am that night. You didn’t intend that to happen, but you needed to have it ready early in the morning as you had promised. Is it best to let the customer know you worked so hard the night before?

I’ve been in these situations with my printing business. When the project finishes, it’s tempting to tell the customer how hard you worked and how late you stayed to make it happen. They would appreciate knowing that, right?

The answer is usually yes, they would appreciate it, but what other thoughts may go through the customer’s head that may not benefit you. Here is a short list:

• The customer wonders why you didn’t plan better.
• The customer feels bad that you stayed so late and may think twice before “burdening” you in the future.
• The customer may have a lot on their plate and doesn’t want to discuss or think about what it took to complete the project. They hired you to simply help them with it, not to talk about it.

I’ve experienced each of these reactions at some point over 20 years. I’ve come to the conclusion that the customer doesn’t usually need to know.

PS – One exception may be related to the discussion of future rush fees if you know that you truly need more time in the future on similar projects.

February 18, 2019