What do you say to a customer that complains about every little imperfection in a commercial van wrap?

[Carol Sundberg]

We just wrapped a Ford Transit van for a long-standing customer, a commercial & residential painting company. This is their first vehicle wrap so they're new to this game. It turned out great! I wasn't present when they picked it up but had spoken to them on the phone to let them know it was done. They were so excited & I was excited for them. Today, I get a call that they aren't happy with how it turned out. I told them to bring it by & I'll be sure to be in the office to look at it with my wrap crew. When the customer got here with his entourage (3 other people, are you kidding me?!), they pointed out every minor (barely there) wrinkle & imperfection. Granted, there are a few small wrinkles in those areas on a van that are more challenging to wrap, but definitely not an excessive number, well within what I would call acceptable parameters for a commercial vehicle. After some discussion, we came to a compromise; we're going to replace the "worst" area of the wrap. Of course, I'm not thrilled about it but it could be worse. My team isn't thrilled about it either. Who's to say they won't complain about the replacement? So my question is... How do address a customer's unrealistic high expectations of perfection?

 

[CanuckSigns]

Ask him to paint your house, then point out the imperfections in his work...

But seriously, explain to him that this is a moving billboard, much like the bit of lint under paint on a wall, it will not affect the durability and no one will notice it.

If you post some photos of the issues, you will get a better idea if his concerns are justified or not.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I set expectations up front. I tell them this is artwork applied by hand and it's going to have small, unnoticeable imperfections when viewed in its entirety.

Just do what you can to address their issues with it and it will be fine. It's easy to take it personally but spend a little extra time and be very gentle with them. It's not a factory finished paint job, it's sticky vinyl applied by hand from someone doing their best.

 

[Stacey K]

I'm always very hard on myself until I see other peoples work. I rarely see a sign, vehicle or anything that is perfect. Most of what I've seen from other shops is between 3-7 stars. Very rare to see 9 or 10 star work, especially with commercial. It's pretty rare people with commercial vehicles look them over that closely.

I had a new customer once and he complained I had a couple small wrinkles on a curve and he said I did pretty good but he noticed them. It really bothered me, like I lost sleep over it. A month later he dropped off another vehicle he had partially wrapped previous to me and - ya...I looked like a damn super star compared to that sh&t job.

Don't lose sleep over it.

 

[Carol Sundberg]

Thanks for the input. I appreciate your perspectives. I don't think we've always been as clear with our customers upfront as we should be. We know the limitations & expectations; it's second nature to us. I think we sometimes forget that not everyone knows what we know. I always tell my employees that it's our responsibility to educate our customers, not just sell them signs. Your words will make the conversations with this & future customers easier & more informative.

This is the final result. I'll see if we have any pics of the "flaws".

 

[Gino]

This has been happening since sign shops started opening up in the early 1900's.

Hey, there's a hair in the paint
Looky there, it's a small drip/run
It looks crooked to me
that's not what your drawing looked like
---to---
This vinyl is peeling already
There's a wrinkle in it
It looks crooked to me
That's not what the proof looked like
It looks a little fuzzy

Trucks, signs and any other form of written information is almost always viewed from a distance
Flowers are meant to be smelled
Get your danged nose off the sign..... ya smell flowers, not signs

Also, have on your quote sheet or somewhere in writing that some small areas might have some imperfections in it. Make sure they read this and sign for it.

By doing some of it over, did you reconsider that it was beyond acceptable ??