Framing your art

“Much good work is lost for the lack of a little more.”  ~Edward H. Harriman

A few months ago, Seth Godin wrote the following post.

Hardly worth the effort

In most fields, there’s an awful lot of work put into the last ten percent of quality.

Getting your golf score from 77 to 70 is far more difficult than getting it from 120 to 113 or even from 84 to 77.

Answering the phone on the first ring costs twice as much as letting it go into the queue.

Making pastries the way they do at a fancy restaurant is a lot more work than making brownies at home.

Laying out the design of a page or a flyer so it looks like a pro did it takes about ten times as much work as merely using the template Microsoft builds in for free, and the message is almost the same…

Except it’s not. Of course not. The message is not the same.

The last ten percent is the signal we look for, the way we communicate care and expertise and professionalism. If all you’re doing is the standard amount, all you’re going to get is the standard compensation. The hard part is the last ten percent, sure, or even the last one percent, but it’s the hard part because everyone is busy doing the easy part already.

The secret is to seek out the work that most people believe isn’t worth the effort. That’s what you get paid for.

It got me thinking, what is the last 10% in the massage experience? Is it the warm pillow under the head and towel on the back? Is it the phone call the next day, to check on a new client?  It could be the thank you note with a personal message after a client’s first visit, or when a regular refers a friend to you.  In my office, I think it’s the genuine, “I’m so glad you’re here!” when a client walks in the door.

Whether or not you believe that we are in uncertain times, your business will be served by follow-thru, by the effort that makes a client feel your service and skill is remarkable. It’s the difference between a stroke that ends at the insertion of the deltoid and a full-on effleurage that curves around the shoulder and envelops the arm from fingertips to clavicle.

It’s the framing around a commissioned piece of art.

It’s the difference that makes a client return to you, instead of trying that $49 joint down the street.

(Consumed while eating this post: Falafel, w/ hummus and tahini and everything else yummy.)

Possibly Related Posts:

• Office Space, a renter’s checklist
• Reaching my full clientele, in a nutshell.
• Twitter. Do this, don’t do that. A list.
• Raising the Stakes and Stopping a Deal
• Cancellation policies: make one, enforce it, and feel good.