It's Your Money! Embroidery Project

How do you handle rush orders? Do you charge extra for this? Rush orders cost you more to produce, so it’s only logical that you pass this additional cost on to the customer. Surprisingly, many embroiderers don’t, their thinking being that a rush order is just good customer service.

In reality, providing a quick turnaround to one customer, usually means another customer has their job postponed, which may lead to deadlines being missed. You end up making one customer happy at the expense of making several others mad. In addition, you usually have to makeup the schedule backlog by working extra hours, which can lead to overtime charges if you have employees.

On top of the extra costs, what happens when the customer begs for their order to be completed in 2 days, then doesn’t show up for 2 weeks?

To remedy this situation, setup a policy in regards to rush orders. Think about your own situations. If you really need to have something shipped badly, you are willing to pay UPS to deliver overnight? On the other-hand, if you can live with their normal turn-around time, you will choose to have it shipped ground. Apply this concept to your rush order policy.

Customers who really do need a RUSH job, will pay for it. Those who don’t, will be glad to wait for the normal turnaround. By setting up such a policy, everyone understands the rules up front and you don’t get short-changed in the end.