What is your typical time from the time the customer gives you the job until the job is complete? What's the longest time you've encountered? How did the customer feel about that? What is an acceptable waiting time for the customer?

Ed

<stop me if I've already told this one> A long time ago I worked in a production photolab. Work would come in during the afternoon, I'd do it the next morning, usually before lunch. But my boss had a system where each type of work had a day count, and nothing left before that daycount was up. So I'd put the work in a bin, and every day I'd check that bin to see what was due to go out.

At first I thought this was very poor business, and told him so (I was the same, even back then). He explained to me that, if you gave it to them the second it was finished, they wouldn't be appreciative, and would come to expect that kind of service on all their work. Some would even be suspicious of something that didn't take days to do.

Anyway, the windup is that I came to agree with him, and used a similar system when I had my own commercial lab.

And today? Today I tell them "I'll have it for you in a week or two", then give it to them in a week. Ok, maybe 5 days :)

I usually tell them 7-10 working days, for much the same reasons Doug mentioned. I usually have it done the next day... :)

I have had work that took the full amount of time plus a little more though. Ones that were so disasterous that I couldn't face working on them for more than an hour (or less) at a time... :)

I usually work on about a week but this is dependant on the size of the job. The more complex the job the longer I take. I find that when I first get a job I like to start it straight away but then look at it a day or so later, then I can find any faults with my work, I usually find something I could have done better.
I try not to pin myself down to an exact time but rather say "about a week, but I will let you know if it's going to be longer". So far there have been no complaints about my turn around time. Hopefully it will stay that way.