Being a marketing consultant is a very interesting position to be in because a lot of it requires outsourcing projects. It involves working with teams, in-house and outside of the company you are working with.

Lately I've been working with a company on a project that required their truck to get wrapped.  We had looked into a few different companies and finally settled with a local graphics company. At first meet, they seemed enthusiastic and more than capable of meeting our needs.  But soon after agreeing to work with them, I started noticing small promises being broken. At first I didn't think anything of it and overlooked it.  But as deadlines approached and we weren't getting what we were promised, a lot of frustration started to set in for myself and the company I was working with.

I started wondering, how bad do these people want to succeed? Why are they willing to be mediocre at their job? Why do they have people in positions that they are clearly not qualified for?

The designer I was working for had no creativity. I literally had to come up with the design concept and lead him by the hand to create the graphic. I have an eye for what I like, but I am not a graphic artist; nor do I have the desire or talent to be one. This is the reason why we hire people in areas that they excel, correct?

And unfortunately, the response times of the person managing the project where poor and she seemed indifferent to all missteps that were occurring. Due to the priority of getting this project completed, we had to stick it out and make it work to get the job done. But needless to say, we will not be working with this company again. As a result, they lost the opportunity of working with us on a future project that would of yielded them tens of thousands of dollars!

BIG oops!

But it makes me wonder, how many companies out there do just enough to get by? I think it's a shame really. We did address our concerns with the owner and hopefully he took it to heart and will address these issues so he can move his company forward.

But what about those who don't say anything and simply switch companies in the future? Or worse, they talk negatively about the company on social media, or yelp, or some other platform that allows them to vent their frustrations in a public forum.

This is just one example of course. Tardiness, poor response times, and lack of enthusiasm are just of the few things I've noticed that have been lacking in much of the customer service touch points with small business owners.

So have we as small business owners and entrepreneurs accepted mediocrity? Are we willing to be okay with those small broken promises? Is there a level of what's acceptable? We all make mistakes and it's our responsibility to rectify those mistakes, learn from them and not repeat them again. But to be okay with mediocre performance, especially when there's so much at stake, I don't think that's acceptable.

I don't think we should accept that of our-self or others. It's time to step up our standards and look at our systems, procedures and process and look for the cracks. What's it going to take from us to improve and step up our standards?

How have you been in your business? Have you been setting high standards or accepting mediocrity? What can you do today to step it up?