The client who gets her best

A freelance bookkeeper in Amman keeps the accounts for nine small businesses, and she does not work equally hard for all of them.

She would never say so. Every client gets correct numbers, on time. That part is the job.

But some clients get the other part. The note in the margin pointing out that a supplier has quietly raised prices three months running. The evening spent finding a simpler way through the year-end filing. The phone call before something goes wrong, rather than after it.

None of that appears on an invoice. It costs her attention, patience and a kind of care that does not refill quickly, and she only has so much of it in a week.

I think of it as a vote. Doing more than the job asks is choosing someone. It says: I want this shop to do well, I trust the person running it, and I am putting something of my own behind them.

So it is fair to ask who has earned the vote. The tailor who pays on the first of the month and thanks her when she catches a mistake has earned it. The owner who disputes every line, pays in the third week and treats her warnings as fussing has not, however well his business is doing.

Most people hand out their best by default, to whoever happens to be in front of them, and then feel quietly used when nothing comes back.

The better habit is to notice where the vote is going. If a client, a partner or an employer would not do the same for you, the extra effort is not generosity. It is a gift to someone who will never notice it was given, and it is worth more somewhere else.