I owned a graphic communications (commercial printing, promotional products, banners, exhibit systems, etc.) for more than 20 years. Virtually everything we did for our clients was time sensitive to meet events.
I always contended that clients really don’t know how good a vendor is until something goes wrong. It would be wonderful if I could say that nothing ever went off the tracks, but that would be retroactive wishful thinking! Presses breaking down, paper merchants delivering the wrong goods, staff member taking his kid to the ER - none of that mattered to the client with a trade show opening in 2 hours!
The client waiting for his trade show literature was offered a significantly more expensive paper at no additional cost because the wrong paper was delivered to us. He was obviously fine with that solution. Also obviously my profit was not what was originally planned. The lifetime value of the client and the goodwill he generated for my business, telling how I took care of the problem, more than covered my cost to fix the situation.
Friday morning the pressmen who operated the 36” printing press called from the hospital where his child was receiving emergency care and said he would not be able to work that day. His wife was my bindery manager and wasn’t leaving her family!
Saturday evening was the sports banquet of a large high school and the sports annual was a star attraction of the evening. I could get the project printed but assembling it in time would be the problem. I called my client, explained the situation and asked if he could find two volunteers to work in the bindery assembling the sports books. Working through the night, the books were finished and delivered before noon Saturday.
Over on the promotional products side of the business, problems were rarely my company’s doing, but along with customer contact goes ultimate responsibility for providing what the client ordered. Not every situation can be fixed, but most can. The most important consideration is not what it will cost but rather how quickly things can be made right.
To this point, a project for a town’s police department for youth anti-crime presentations at schools, had the town name misspelled! There was a school meeting coming up in a few days that the item was needed for. The salesperson was without any suggestions, but mentioned that there were 10 school meetings planned and she was losing a great order. Also noted was that the police community relations officer was disappointed and the mayor was irate. I called the mayor, introduced myself, and asked how much it would cost to get him to change the spelling of the town name! We had a good laugh. I told him we were redoing the job and only the first scheduled meeting would be missed. We were discounting the job by 10% and giving a 10% discount on whatever the next project would be. He thanked me for being a business they could rely on and said he would try to reschedule the first meeting.
Also worth noting is that the misspelling was the supplier’s mistake, not my team. They fixed the mistake, reprinted the job and had it in my hands before the end of business 2 days later. So while my client was pleased with how we stood behind our work, my supplier had my back and would continue to be an important vendor for me.
Do you do whatever it takes to fix a problem, or do you try to push the problem off on someone else? I know distributors that are always trying to make the supplier responsible.
When the cost of acquiring new clients and the lifetime value of a client is considered along with goodwill and referrals that come your way, impressing your client by making things right is a wise and profitable way to handle your business.
Fixing things that go wrong certainly impresses most clients. Clients not even knowing that you prevented a disaster is in many cases the better choice. My staff were incentified to look for potential problems. I provided funds for a shared bonus. Any costs incurred fixing mistakes came out of this fund. Any year with no costs got 10% added to the fund. That happened several times in 10 years!
If you are the only employee, staff member or order processing executive, you can still set up a mistake free fund. The benefits are that when unexpected costs happen, it won’t impact your cash flow. You also have a good gauge on how carefully orders are being handled. (Being able to leave that cash alone is a great discipline to develop!)
Perhaps most importantly, you won’t hesitate to fix things as quickly as possible, when your fund is there to handle any costs.
Gregg Emmer managed Kaeser & Blair’s marketing, catalog publishing and vendor relations for more than 30 years. Prior to arriving at K&B in 1991 he owned and operated a graphic communication company featuring promotional products and full service printing. Today Emmer’s consulting work provides marketing, public relations and business planning consulting to a wide range of businesses including promotional industry suppliers, venture capital and market research companies. If you are interested in growing your business (or privately commenting on articles) contact Gregg at gregg.promopro@gmail.com.