Okay Is a Perfect Score

Someone I know gets annoyed when a client answers her work with “okay.”

No “wow.” No “exactly what I imagined.” No fire emoji.

She wants appreciation. Fair. She put hours into it.

But you know the wow clients.

“Wow, love it!!” arrives at 9:12 a.m. “Just a few tiny thoughts” arrives at 9:14. Attached: fourteen screenshots and a red circle around the logo.

Enthusiasm is a warm-up. The fire emoji is how they stretch before the revision round.

“Okay” doesn’t stretch. Okay looked at it, found nothing to fix, and went back to its day. No notes. No “quick call to align.” No third round.

Complaints come in paragraphs. Approval comes in one word, because there’s nothing to explain when nothing went wrong.

She hears: “That’s it?”

I hear: “Done. Next.”

Same word. Only the reader changed.

So if you get an “okay” today, take it. It’s the closest thing to a perfect score most clients will ever give you.

And if a fire emoji ever shows up, don’t celebrate yet.

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