Over 35 years I have been given all kinds of reasons to rush jobs through a print shop. I have heard excuses ranging from I forgot to order to my plane is waiting at the airport. Yesterday a young woman gave me a new reason. When I gave her the completion date she told me I had to rush the job through because she is cute, very cute, probably the cutest girl I had ever seen and if I got it ready early she will pick it up instead of us delivering it and I would get to meet her. Not sure if it is going to help but it was original.
A Day Lost
Yesterday I ordered paper from one of my paper suppliers and when the delivery came in they were short on one of the items. It was a special order so I had prepaid for the shipment. When the paper was being signed in we discovered the shortage. My plant manager called the company and the matter was resolved with them bringing the rest of the paper tomorrow. When we went to place the order for today they had us paying for the special order again. It seems that their system will allow us to get the shortage for no charge but if we order anything else on the ticket we will have to pay on everything including the paper we already paid for. To resolve this problem the order taker suggested we wait another day to order anything new. I suggested that he write two tickets but that couldn’t be done either so I will wait another day to get my paper.
Posted in General.
– May 27, 2010
Sometimes it just won’t fit
I received a call from a regular client that needed to discuss a job she was planning to print. She told me she had the envelopes and wanted to plan the size of the invite around the envelopes. With that said she went into the description of the invitation. She had really put some thought into the project and I told her so. Later that day she came by with the artwork and as I was reading the invitation I noticed the size seemed much larger then we had discussed. I mentioned it to her and she told me she measured the envelopes. I said to her that she read me the envelope size from the box and the invite will not fit. She told me I was wrong and we proceeded to produce the invitations. Guess what?
Posted in Customers.
– May 26, 2010
No Standing Still for this Customer
I worked for a manufacturing company that specialized in social, personal and business stationery. The majority of our customers were retail companies that resold the material we produced. I was at a trade show in Atlanta when two women came to my booth to discuss setting up an account with my company. They handed me their business card and it read “The Stationary Experts.” I read the card and told them they were using the wrong stationery as the one with the “A” meant standing still. They responded extremely defensive so I backed off but they left very angry. The next year I again was in Atlanta for the same show and the same two women came to the booth to discuss opening an account with my company. They handed me their card and it read “The Stationery Experts.” I didn’t say a word, they opened an account, became fairly active customers and we spoke often about many different things but not one word was ever said about spelling.
Posted in Customers.
– May 19, 2010
Maybe We Just Imagined It
I received a call from a customer ordering a brochure that he said we did last year. I checked my files both by computer and manually and found nothing. I had my graphics department check their files for the brochure and they too found nothing. I called the customer and asked him if I could pick up a sample of the brochure and maybe that way I would be able to find the piece in question. He told me he didn’t have a single copy left. He became rather upset when I told him I couldn’t find anything in my system and he hung up. A week went by and his assistant called me to start working on the brochure. I asked her what happened and she started laughing as she told me there was no brochure, her boss started to do one last year and forgot about it. Since he hired two new salespeople he wanted the brochure and forgot he never printed one.
Posted in Customers.
– May 14, 2010
No arguing this one!
There is an old saying that the customer is always right and I believe that no matter what the situation a service business cannot win an argument with a customer. Which brings me to the incident that occurred the other day. I was called into a customer’s office to hear how a job I did was done incorrectly. I knew what I was walking into and had checked my files before I left my office. I calmly looked at my customer and told her that I did not print the piece that she was waving at me. After she told me that I was her only printer for over three years, I told her I was sorry and would redo the job. Even though I knew I hadn’t done the form I liked that she felt I was her one and only printer. When I got back to the office I had a message from the client apologizing, while she was on vacation someone in the office went to an office supply store to get the copies done. I thanked her and ran the forms at no charge.
Posted in Customers.
– May 12, 2010
Do over…
I worked for a company that produced business cards, letterheads and envelopes for a national company with 35 offices across the United States. More often then not we would have several orders in house at one time. One afternoon I was watching my shipping clerk ready packages for four different offices at one time. He was meticulous about how he packaged each carton. When he was done packing I asked him how he remembered which office was in each carton. He looked up at me rather bewildered and turned back to the cartons and ripped them open.
Posted in Customers.
– April 30, 2010
You’re right – it doesn’t work
I had a machine down for a few days waiting on a service technician to arrive. When he finally showed up he seemed to be in no rush to get to work (first to the bathroom and then across the road for a snack). When he was ready to go to work he came into my office to check what was wrong with the piece of equipment. I told him it didn’t work. He didn’t like my answer but went over to check it out. Not even five minutes later he was back to confirm my diagnosis, with a big smile he announced, “You’re right it doesn’t work” He then packed his bag and told me he didn’t have any parts with him and would be back in a few days.
Posted in Customers.
– April 14, 2010
He’s out but I’ll ask him…
The other day I was getting ready to make a sales call and before I left I called to make sure that my customer was still expecting me. I got the receptionist on the phone and asked for the person I was to meet. The receptionist said he was out of the office. I said I had an appointment in half an hour did she expect him back by then. She told me to hold and she’ll ask him.
Posted in Customers.
– April 12, 2010
Still want it?
My vendors are not exempt from making me laugh. The other day we ordered some material from one of my vendors that make daily deliveries to me. Late in the morning well after the driver left I received a call from their order desk. I was told that they missed one item that we ordered the day before. They were calling to find out if we still wanted it since they didn’t deliver it.
Posted in Customers.
– April 9, 2010
