The Customer Is Always Right
We always strive to have happy customers. We believe that the customer is always right.
- Sometimes that happens on the first try.
- Sometimes it takes a little longer.
- And sometimes it doesn’t work out.
Sometimes that happens on the first try.
A college student wants to create her design in metal as a special gift to her mom. She has a clear vision of the design. A minor tweak on a font and placement in our design. She receives it the day before she leaves to visit her mom. Her response – “In absolute AWE of how amazing it is” and her mom “cried when she gave it to her”. Music to our ears. It’s what makes us happy.
Sometimes it takes a little longer.
A local designer connects us up with a family looking for 2 ranch signs. She has an initial design that will need a few tweaks. The owner wants to try out a few other ideas. After exploring those, the original design is tweaked and approved. The owner wants something that looks aged but understands the need for the clear coat. We create the two signs using our normal process and install them but receive an email the next morning that there is a “significant problem” with the finish of the signs. After meeting with them, Mike has an idea of how he can create the look they’re after.
Two new signs are created and installed. Their response – “We LOVE our signs. They are just perfect.” Success! And we learned something in the process. We need to have more examples of different techniques we can use in our signs to help the customer envision what is possible. The customer is paying us, so the customer is always right.
And sometimes it doesn’t work out.
If there’s one thing we can tell you about the metal work we do, it’s that each piece will be unique. Steel is made up of a variety of things that react differently as you apply patinas and clear coat. We cannot duplicate the exact coloration you will see in one piece. We can guarantee you it will be different. Having said that, we were concerned about our ability to consistently produce the results that another client wanted in 32 signs for her business. And it was a patina process we had never used before.
After much experimentation and not being able to meet our client’s needs, we had to admit defeat. We created the signs she wanted without patina and clear coat, so hopefully she could find someone else to create the look she was after. It was difficult to come to that place, but it was not a personal decision. We did what we could and parted on good terms.
Live and Learn
In our two years in business, we learned a lot. We’ve grown our business and challenged ourselves in ways we never imagined. We’ve learned that you need to take time to enjoy life (mini vacations are good). And we’ve learned that we need to understand the level of stress we are willing to accept in our business and that limitations are a reality.