posted
Once in a while I get a good "head slap" and it's usually when I need it the most.
Yesterday a client called and wanted to know when their sign would be finished...duh..."let me check on it and I'll get back with you" (best head fake I could come up with) I remember the client ordering it and I know I wrote it down (somewhere) ...I'd just find it take care of it and call them when it was ready.
Typically in Oklahoma when all the doors and windows are open things get moved around a bit and if your not carefull the info literally goes out the door. Now I don't know if that was the case here but I ended up calling the customer back and addmiting that "we had dropped the ball but it's an easy fix...just give me the info again and we'll do it first thing today"
As it turned out it was a simple little 3'x3' sign that goes in the cusomers sales office.
Oh did I mention the copy on the sign?
"Attention" TO DETAIL
Even the customer saw the humor (they got the sign I got the money) and all is well in beautiful downtown "Windy Oklahoma"
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
posted
I'm laughing because you're talking about ME Monte. Even with our system of doing things here sometimes I have 2-3 customers in the showroom at a time plus the phone ringing and sometimes one will just slip thru the cracks and not get put into the POS. That is funny about the copy!
-------------------- Ricky Jackson Signs Now 614 Russell Parkway Warner Robins, GA (478) 923-7722 signpimp50@hotmail.com
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Issac Newton Posts: 3528 | From: Warner Robins, GA | Registered: Oct 2004
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My mind wanders. And that's not a good thing, 'cause it's too small to be out there alone. Posts: 3129 | From: Tooele, UT | Registered: Mar 2005
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posted
I hate it when that happens. . . . . and it happens way to often around here. The busier it gets the more spread apart those little notes get, and I'm not blaming the wind! It's me.
The irony isn't usually a side benefit though.
-------------------- Bill Modzel Mod-Zel screen Printing Traverse city, MI modzel@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1357 | From: Traverse City, MI | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
and isn't it a relief when they have a sense of humour too, Monte!
(edited to fix a typo)
[ June 21, 2006, 10:30 AM: Message edited by: Ian Stewart-Koster ]
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Not quite as bad as searching high and low for that job, being convinced you've lost it and then finding out the customer actually ordered it from your competitor....
-------------------- Graham Parsons Signs 'n Such Ltd Swift Current Saskatchewan Canada. www.signsnsuch.com
"Saskatchewan - hard to pronounce, easy to draw" Posts: 710 | From: Saskatchewan, Canada | Registered: Oct 1999
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posted
Do you se that Monte? You are not alone, you have lots of company.
-------------------- Bill Riedel Riedel Sign Co., Inc. 15 Warren Street Little Ferry, N.J. 07643 billsr@riedelsignco.com Posts: 2953 | From: Little Ferry, New Jersey, USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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posted
I had a guy call me from a different state wanting a sign like I did for some towing company that I've never heard of. He swore that the sign had a sticker on it that said Wildfire Signs, argued with me that I did that sign. After describing it to me, I told him it was Watchfire Signs.
Fast forward a couple weeks, come back from a job & there is a message on the phone from the same guy. This time he's complaining that he filled out the form on my website a few weeks ago & still hasn't received the information from me about the sign. I called him back & explained that he had called Wildfire Signs and again he wanted Watchfire Signs. I don't even have a 'form' on my website. Sometimes I just want to reach through the phone & put a sticky on the guy's monitor that gives him the info for the company he really wants to reach.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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posted
At the first shop I worked in, the manager would have seizures and whatever he hadn't written down pre-seize would be gone.
A customer would show up and ask for their sign and he'd have to search his brain to remember who they even were.
I've had a few "OH S**T!" moments myself. We only have so much capacity to remember and get everything done. If you had a fight with your gal/other that day, your mind is probably not 100% focused on your work. Some things just go in one ear and out the other.
I almost always write stuff down on either a full sheet or in my memo pad. I've got a palm pilot, but I find I have to take a break from it and get everything done in it. Then start fresh once the slate is clean. During that time, I break out the old analog memo pad. Little scraps get lost too easy because they look like trash.
""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3487 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Yeah, Bobbie R. said I should put a new pic up sans the hat. She said I was much hansummer without it, hehe.
-------------------- Ricky Jackson Signs Now 614 Russell Parkway Warner Robins, GA (478) 923-7722 signpimp50@hotmail.com
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Issac Newton Posts: 3528 | From: Warner Robins, GA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
LOL, and that's different from the other heads floating around here? This pic was taken at the zoo party this past weekend; I think it's the only decent one of me. Most of the time I'm behind the lens so I don't get many of me.
-------------------- Ricky Jackson Signs Now 614 Russell Parkway Warner Robins, GA (478) 923-7722 signpimp50@hotmail.com
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Issac Newton Posts: 3528 | From: Warner Robins, GA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Been there, done that....happens more often than I would like to admit.
Reading Kissy's message about the guy confusing her company name with another sign company reminded me of a something that happened to me earlier. I got a call from an agent working for a realty company for which I regularly make signs. She complains to me that I made her sign wrong. Not only that, but I had now made it incorrectly TWICE and she needed the corrected one IMMEDIATELY!
The whole time she is complaining, I'm thinking to myself I never made this sign. The realty company is a good client of mine, so I conitunue to humor this agent and say "Fine, I'll make the signs over today. Call me later in the afternoon to find out when you can pick them up. When you pick them up, please bring me the defective ones..."
I searched through all my computer invoice records. Nothing! I searched through my customers entire paper file. Nothing! I searched for a Coreldraw file of the original "inocorrectly" made sign. Nothing! I searched for a Signlab file. Again: nothing!
I had to call the agent back to confirm the copy for the sign. Now she really thought I was an idiot. Not only had I made her sign incorrectly TWICE (once mispelling her name and the second time with a wrong phone number), now I couldn't even figure out what I made. I sheepishly asked if she was sure I made the sign. She was insistant that I had made it and couldn't understand why I would ask such a question.
So I made the corrected signs and she came and got them. Per my request, she gave me back one set of the "wrong" signs. Off she went, happy with her new CORRECTLY made signs.
After she left, I examined the "wrong" signs and determined that I did indeed NOT make these signs. The color vinyl is one I don't use. The pieces of PVC had been cut with a blade and not a nice table saw like I use. The holes in the sign did not have brass grommets (I always put brass grommets in the signs for this client) were obviously not drilled with a drill press which is what I use. Anyway....
The client had recently paid me twice for an order identical to this one. I was going to put a credit on their account...but not now All is well that ends well I say.
I still wonder, though, how they could have ordered two sets of signs from some other company and not know they did it!!?
-------------------- Jim McLain McLain Studios 1203 Main Street Asbury Park, NJ 07712 jlm@mclainstudios.com Posts: 42 | From: New Jersey | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Well Jim, looks like you just picked up another customer
-------------------- Ricky Jackson Signs Now 614 Russell Parkway Warner Robins, GA (478) 923-7722 signpimp50@hotmail.com
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Issac Newton Posts: 3528 | From: Warner Robins, GA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
There's a lesson here somewhere. We all screw up from time to time. That's just something humans do. Let's hope we forgive others when they screw up, in the same way we ask forgiveness for our mistakes.
-------------------- Steve Shortreed 144 Hill St., E. Fergus, Ontario Canada N1M 1G9 519-787-2673
posted
"IRONY", Rainman, the topic is "IRONY". They only allow hockey helmets in Canadian jails.
-------------------- Ricky Jackson Signs Now 614 Russell Parkway Warner Robins, GA (478) 923-7722 signpimp50@hotmail.com
"If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." Sir Issac Newton Posts: 3528 | From: Warner Robins, GA | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
Gosh Steve there is no reason to ask "forgiveness" when you step up and contact the person your (unintentional) mistake has affected and follow up by correcting the problem.
By doing that I earned their respect and their forgiveness...and leave knowing all is well with the world and the people that were affected.
Making mistakes and not coming forward creates problems of forgiveness...then again... maybe I'm looking at it wrong...but I don't think so.
Good to see your checking in!
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
More than once, a customer has ordered the sign and somehow I forgot about it and/or misplaced the info . . . then after 2 or 3 weeks, they call (and it's actually fantastic when this happens):
"Have you started that sign yet?? No?? GREAT! We've got to make some major changes . . ."
Or either they don't even need it anymore . . .
What's better that NOT doin' somethin' that would have to be changed entirely, or is completely un-needed!?! I prefer makin' money on needed signs that will remain unchanged for a while!!
-------------------- Signs Sweet Home Alabama
oneshot on chat
"Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a dog" Posts: 5758 | From: "Sweet Home" Alabama | Registered: Mar 2003
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