Customer's "Oh No!"

[dlndesign]

Long story...I had a customer come in yesterday morning needing some banners for a trade show this morning. He gave me the specs and we went back and forth on a few details, he didn't have the pole sizes narrowed down. I told him this is a backward way of doing this, we should have the poles you want to use to make certian that they will fit. He said to go ahead with it, approved the proof yesterday afternoon.

Then he has another person come by to check on the banners yesterday before closing, he was handeling the "pole" situation, he took a look at the banners and was saying how the poles wouldn't fit into the pole pockets we stiched. I then told him that this was the spec I got from the other guy, then there was some confusion on what he said and what he told me, blah blah blah..

So the guy who placed the order comes in this morning looking at the final product and starts pacing back and forth and gets on the phone with the other guy telling him " this isn't going to work " I am sitting behind the counter thinking to myself, "well this is what you approved". Then he asks, "we may need to pull the stitching out to get it to work, can you restitch this back together if we do?" I said "Yes, of course", he replyed "For free?" I said "Um, no, but we can work something out", he finally pays and heads out the door.

Now I feel bad, they didn't have a good plan to go by and this was all thrown together at the last minute. I am all about customer satisfaction, but this guy was testing the limits. Since its all said and done, I was just wondering if I should have handled it differently. Any thoughts?

 

[Jet Fast Printing]

I think you handled it fine, if there are not too many banners (and how good of a customer it is) would probably restitch them for no charge.

 

[iSign]

the way I see it, the sooner people who are searching for a solution to THEIR problem, stop thinking that making it MY problem is the solution, the sooner they will redirect their mind to other solutions that may exist like some cheap sticks of 10' electrical conduit, or the addition of 1 or 2 small holes under the pole pocket, where some additional support can take the sag out of whatever size pole will fit..

..and for you to be quick to say you are capable of their plan A, but quick to say you don't work free.. that's absolutely fine... then you could even help take the brainstorming to the next level.. perhaps by saying "I'd hate to see you spend $200 on a solution that I can't do any cheaper, but would this or that plan B work for you?" and then they have their plan A quote, as a bench mark to compare other solutions against, but it was given in the spirit of helping them find the best solution...

 

[Rooster]

I had a customer oh no! today too. Looks like they never looked at the proofs (beyond signing them) and there's some text (in a foreign language, theirs!) that was completely wrong.

Another couple grand booked to replace it.

Oh No! indeed