Delivering Quick and Quality

I am super anal when it comes to response time. I cannot stand to have an unreturned voicemail sitting on my phone, or an unresponded to email in my inbox. Don't get me wrong, I have multiple of each at just about all times.........but I can't gain comfort or ever justify to myself why I have allowed those to sit there unattended to. This is another bi-product of increasing productivity.......this is a good thing. I don't have a formula for increasing sales that doesn't involve increasing the number of people you touch each day. When you reach out, they reach back........you hope anyway. And there you have it, you now have more emails and voicemails than you can return in a days time. One of my goals in 2011 is to put a system into place for myself that will give me no excuse to have an unreturned voicemail or email at the end of each business day. Then it's on me......and any unreturned message will simply be because of my inefficiency.

Perhaps I am so particular about this because I don't like to be on the un-receiving end of that unreturned message. Often times I'm looking for an answer or suggestions for a specific task that I'm working on. In cases that messages are not returned, my task can be delayed or compromised. I believe that's common for people who are reaching out for me, and I know how frustrating it can be on the other end of this.

Past generations have been trained to take your time on tasks, to do it right the first time, to concentrate on quality and the result will be worth the wait. Today, that train of thought will get you beat. Many of today's generation has a "give it to me now, and give it to me messy" attitude. I don't care what it looks like, if it's spelled right, or if it's presentable, I just need it now. I personally have been guilty of this. But I can tell you in generic terms, with confidence, that if my competitors are quick and sloppy, I will beat them every time. Don't get me wrong, I place an extremely high value in quick.........EXTREMELY high value.

The right answer is not somewhere in the middle. The answer is to simply be better. I want it quick, and of high quality. It's amazing that when you demand this of yourself, how achievable it actually is. It takes a little more time, and a lot more attention to detail. It means that you filter through all emails extremely quickly, identifying the crucial ones. Read those emails thoroughly, and right then and there address every detail of the request in the email. If you don't have time or access to give 100% of the requests back, send what you have, identify at you will be sending the rest later, and then don't let yourself wrap up the day until you have done it. This might mean a little more time at work that day, or turning cell phones and other distractions off until it's complete. If you can't get it done later that day, make sure you have it back to them the next morning before the average workday begins.

This is how it is these days. It's the most competitive time in our history (so I'm told).
Delivering quick and quality is no longer considered overachieving.......it is the norm. Don't trick yourself into thinking that I'm over exaggerating.....you're falling behind if you do. If you can't do it, somebody else will.