I don’t usually do much talking on this blog but today I would like to discuss the expectations we all set when it comes to dealing with clients.

Some of the usual followers might have noticed that yesterday my blog was down. Not only that, all my websites were down, in fact. 
It all started in the morning (around 9AM) when I realized I couldn’t create new blog posts or put up new pictures. The hosting server was having some issues and had become read-only. There was no way of putting up new content. We opened a ticket and were told that someone was looking into it. Eventually they realized it too, their server was read-only and all the clients hosted on the same machine were having problems like ours (other clients probably don’t stalk their own blogs as much as I do! I was the first to report.).
After some time (and by this I mean hours), my read-only blogs (nobody could post comments either) went definitely down. It wasn’t even lunchtime that I had all the websites saying: ‘Oops, this link appears to be broken.’ .

We called to ask what was going on. They said they were working on it and that the problem would be solved in ONE hour or so. 
THREE+ hours passed and nothing was back on. We called again and learned that their server had definitely died (the HD was gone). They said the HD was being replaced and that everything would be up again in ONE hour or so. 
FOUR more hours passed and I had yet to see a website of mine go online again.

Okay, I won’t annoy you with all the other times we called them. I think you get the idea. End of the story: I went to bed by 2AM and all my websites and blogs were still DOWN.  According to stats, the first visits on my blogs arrived around 5AM. That makes for TWENTY hours of no-service.

Now, we know shit happens, right? Twenty hours of not having websites/blogs online is not THAT much. It’s not the end of the world BUT I prefer to know what to expect. And here is where you learn how to set expectations with your clients. 
I’m fairly new to the world of business but I learned really early on that you never present your client with the BEST CASE SCENARIO. You always start with the WORST one.

It’s simple really:

At the end of the day, you delivered your service/product in the same amount of time: 3 days, but the way you set your client’s expectations is what made the difference between a satisfied client and a disappointed one!

So, if the hosting company had told me that my websites would have been down for a whole TWENTYFOUR (or even 48) hours I would have enjoyed my Sunday better. Instead, they kept saying ‘ONE hour or so’ and every hour I was there to check on it. I was unable to concentrate on anything I was doing and the frustration kept building up every time I checked if anything was solved.

Blame it on the hormones if you must (remember I’m almost 7 months pregnant?) but I would have killed someone yesterday.

Remember the sneak peek?

T., her soon to be hubby, will most definitely love the boudoir book that he will receive as a wedding gift…

After her mom’s belly and the sneak peek, here is the sweet little girl: