Reflecting on a job well-done gives us a sense of well-being and personal satisfaction that we used our skills and abilities to provide a solution for our clients that enriched their lives and standard of living.
Satisfaction is its own reward
We may have had someone tell us that satisfaction is its own reward, meaning that we should derive a sense of personal satisfaction or knowledge that we have done it well and also that our client has received a truly remarkable solution for the issues they have been facing.
We should be confident in our abilities and how well we have used them to create what the client ordered and expected. This truly gives us the personal reward that we should be seeking. Having the client tell us that we did a great job and that it exceeded their expectations is a wonderful bonus, but we will know that we gave it our best effort even without the accolades.
If we ever feel that we have done less than our best effort or that we couldn’t take the time to do something well, we need to evaluate why this might be the case and rectify it before the project is completed.
Just going through the motions
We’ve all seen people in various occupations (hopefully not when they were part of our team) that for whatever reason don’t seem to be giving their performance their best effort. We all have off days, but it’s at those times when we need to double-down and make sure that we are even better than what we may feel like delivering. The client does not care about what we might be going through. They just want what they paid for and what we promised we could deliver. No excuses.
We’ve likely also heard the expression of “just phoning it in” which means just going through the motions without any sense of pride or enthusiasm in the work product. It’s acting as if we are doing something correctly or worthwhile when we really aren’t that committed to it, paying attention to it, or doing nearly as good or as well as we know how to do it. It is giving the client and others who are depending on what we do expect less than what we represented we would do.
By giving something our best effort – not in a trying way but in an actual doing or performance manner – we won’t need to apologize for a lackluster outcome. The pain of saying we are sorry for a performance that didn’t measure up to what was expected or that we promised we could deliver – for us, our associates, and especially the client – is not worth cutting corners, slacking off, or just turning in an average or subpar performance.
Well-done eliminates the apologies
We’ve likely heard it said that actions speak louder than words. So let’s make sure that we are doing more than just talking a good game. We can promise many things, but our clients are interested in results. It’s what they are paying for, waiting for us to complete for them, and expecting to have as a result of our completion.
As Ben Franklin once said, “Well done is better than well said.” We can talk a good game, but our clients and the public are more interested in our performance than our promises and marketing hype.
Our clients can recognize quality workmanship when they see it. Most people don’t shop solely for the lowest price and ignore how well something is done or how well it works. Everyone enjoys a bargain, but who likes a product that breaks or a solution that wears out prematurely or fails to perform as expected?
Performance is what counts
Regardless of whether it is a product or an aging in place solution that we are offering, consumers really don’t want to spend their money on poor or average workmanship. Yet there are far too many instances of shoddy construction and inattention to quality.
Talk is cheap. Consumers are capable of determining whether we are just describing our good intentions or actually delivering them. They will know that we have delivered a quality solution for them because of what they see and not just because of what we might tell them or declare in an ad.
The best way to establish, sell, and maintain a quality reputation is by letting our efforts and results speak for us.