When my son was a baby, much like a lot of you I couldn’t let him cry for more than a few minutes. I just couldn’t do it. No way.

Until one day I could.

I was putting him in his bed for his nap one afternoon and he would have NONE of it. He was crying and crying and standing up with his hands on the railing and just looking at me through teary eyes and a tear-streaked face and it was so sad and pulled at my heart…. so I shut the door and went on about my business.

I knew to my core that if I took him out of his crib and back out into the living room, I’d be actually doing him a disservice. I knew he was tired. I knew he was exhausted. I knew what he needed.  And what he needed was sleep.

Sure enough, after just a few minutes, he was out.

Fast forward to recently.  I was doing a “quick and easy” project for a client. Only it wasn’t so quick and easy (they never are, sigh….).  The software I had didnt’ have the capability for what he wanted. I had put the call out to other Virtual Assistants for info and feedback, had called out on Twitter (and learned a lot), but what he wanted couldn’t be done with what I had, nor with the next step up. And I wasn’t going to make a $299.00 purchase for a quick job when I just knew there had to be a better and easier way. So, I stopped everything and thought for a few minutes.

“Am I really going to tell him I can’t do this? Am I going to send a job back only 3/4 finished? Am I really going to say, Sorry, but there you go?”

No. That wasn’t sitting well with me. It just was all wrong. It just wasn’t me. It just wasn’t my business practice. I don’t work that way. End of story.

BUT, what should have been a 1.5 hour job, was now going on 4 hours. This service was now becoming a disservice to both him and me.  Him, because he should have had this back yesterday, and me because I was spending too much time on this and stressing out. And, I had other clients’ work to be doing. And come on, in an hours for dollars business model? Time is money (and more on that another day!).

And then I found the answer. An online solution. An inexpensive solution. And a much easier and less convoluted solution. One that he could use over and over and over for less cost than hiring an Admin support person.

Did I shoot myself in the foot?

Maybe. But in good graces I just couldn’t leave him high and dry.

So two takeaways really:

1. when service is becoming a disservice, end it. BUT,
2. admit there is a problem and offer a solution!

So I’ve just saved him A) a bit (potentially a lot) of money and B) I’ve found him another way to automate his business and ease some workload.

Oh, and C) I’ve found a great app to use for future clients and for my own business going forward!

***

if anyone is curious, the service is pdffiller.com

Filed under: Business Integrity, Customer Service