Every rush job is paid for by a quieter customer

Expedites get rationed in every business. When price isn't doing the rationing, volume of complaint is, and the bill lands somewhere you don't invoice.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for Every rush job is paid for by a quieter customer

A customer asks whether the job can be brought forward to Friday. Someone says yes. Nothing on the invoice changes, nothing is logged, and the schedule absorbs it. By most internal measures nothing happened at all: no discount was given, no concession recorded, no exception approved. The favour is invisible precisely because it was free. The interesting question is not whether to say yes. Often yes is right. The question is who pays, and whether anyone in the business decided. The yes is unbilled, not costless An expedite consumes three…

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