Talking to your Customer

[Gail O'Rourke]

HI,

I wanted to share what happened today... I design all the pieces that come out of my shop. Not fancy, just to scale on graph paper, usually I can tell if the project is going to come together....

Currently I am making a kitchen extension...I am making 4 lower cabinets and one tower to match the existing kitchen, had to match doors and drawer front and then paint. I am done the construction and nearing the finish of the painting and I started to second guess the finished product. I wasn't sure if it was going to be what the customer wanted (design wise). It looked a little weird standing there in the middle of the shop.

So, I did what I have never done and called the customer to come and take a look. I didn't want to finish and deliver and have her say, "that's not what I had in mind"

The risk here is she says, hey, I hate it, let's redesign it. And, then I am taking a step backward. (I don't have a problem with this, my goal is a happy customer, and this one is a repeat customer already)

So, to get to the end of this long story, she breezed into the shop today, took one look and said "I love it, looks great, when can you deliver it"

So, disaster averted. Thanks for letting me share this story. Pictures of course will follow upon installation Friday.

I am wondering who has had similar experiences.

An edit: I think I should have posted this in off topic, please move if you need to.

[Dan Racette]

Bet you blew a huge sigh of relief!!! Probably a good call on your part!

Can't wait to see the pictures!

[Matt Tawes]

Hey Gail,

Good call. I've always beleived that communication with your customer about all aspects of a job is key to repeat bus. and satisfaction. Also makes the customer feel like they're part of the process from start to fisnish rather than just a buyer of a product.

[Chris Dodge]

I have a similar one that I am finishing up right now. It is a bathroom cabinet and the customer (an interior designer) is very picky about the wood to be used. She wanted Walnut but wanted me to pick boards that have light edges and dark centers for each board and wants the boards glued at the light colors. This was not an easy task and required a few trips to the wood store before I found enough wood to do this. I called the customer up and had her approve each board before I made the cabinet. She first said, "I'm sure you got some good boards." I told her to get on over here and approve the boards. She came and was very pleased with what I picked. I just need one more coat of poly on it and it will be ready to go. I consider myself a visual person but could not picture how this cabinet was going to look good. This lady is obviously more visual than I because it really does look great!

[Robert Boyd]

The foundation of any successful business is to build relantionships with customers and with suppliers. This is whats forgotten in today's society. Your suppliers can definitely make or break a business. Look at the success of Grizzly. I am sure Papa G can explain this the best.

Remember Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is a business.

Gail, Keep up the good work!:)

[Rob Blaustein]

I have a similar one that I am finishing up right now. It is a bathroom cabinet and the customer (an interior designer) is very picky about the wood to be used. She wanted Walnut but wanted me to pick boards that have light edges and dark centers for each board and wants the boards glued at the light colors. This was not an easy task and required a few trips to the wood store before I found enough wood to do this. I called the customer up and had her approve each board before I made the cabinet. She first said, "I'm sure you got some good boards." I told her to get on over here and approve the boards. She came and was very pleased with what I picked. I just need one more coat of poly on it and it will be ready to go. I consider myself a visual person but could not picture how this cabinet was going to look good. This lady is obviously more visual than I because it really does look great!

Not to hijack Gail's thread (and congrats Gail), but I would love to see some photos of that cabinet. I'm building a bathroom vanity out of walnut and I'm curious to see a walnut cabinet finished.

[Steve Clardy]

You bet. When in doubt about anything that I might question as if the customer might complain, not like, I give them a call, and let them make the final decision.
Thats good business practice.

[Dave Anderson NH]

Gail, my business is obviously different than yours in that I make tools not cabinets or furniture ( except for family). Even though most of my items are stock, I do make occasional custom tools or ones with variations from my standard designs. Usually because of distance I email photos or sketches back and forth or dicuss things on the phone. It's always a bit apprehensive when shipping a custom piece, and though it's a bit risky, I offer a full satisfaction guarantee. If the customer isn't satisfied they can send the item back and I'll even pay the postage both ways. There are no conditions to the guarantee, but I do ask them to help me out by letting me know why they weren't satisfied. So far in 2 years I've only had a couple of items come back and quite frankly they were because of unavoidable quality problems due to wood movement and cracking during shipping. Tropical woods are often notoriously unstable.

Bottom line: I can live with a loss of the profits from a sale. I can't live with having my reputation besmirched by an unsatisifed customer who tells his or her friends that they were unhappy with my products.

[Alan Burhop]

The only customer I have is my LOML. I always have to force her to come and check my progress on something. But when she does, she always has constructive advice. In the end she is always happy.

[Andy London]

I sighed with you Gail,

I run a hobby picture framing business, my wife works at it pretty much full time and we frame around 900 pieces of art a year. For the first year it was bad, clients would bring art work and have no idea what they wanted, just make it look good. I used to fret as it can get very expensive not being able to use the matte or frame I just made (all our frames are figured or exotic woods, only natural colors). In five years I have only had three clients bring a piece back for a change, on two of those ocassions it was done per their instructions so we split the cost.

When I did cabinetry full time for two years, I would ask the client to find a picture or sketch exactly what they wanted and that is what I would make, it has saved me so many times.

In your case, IMHO it's something that happens to all of us, it goes away quite a bit in time but I still get jitters from time to time. I have a project now that is two night tables to match a Stenson bedroom suite (circa 1920's company that was located here in Atlantic Canada) Although it looks like what I have in my head and I think it matches the pictures the client gave me, I will be concerned until I see the smile on her face.

Andy

[Lou Morrissette]

Gail,

I'm currently in a situation where I'm doing a job for a customer I've never met or spoken to. The job came to me through a business associate. All info about the job is coming to me second hand. You're fortunate that your questions were answered by your customer. I sure would feel a little more warm and fuzzy if that was my case. I'll find out friday when I deliver.

Lou

[ROBERT ELLIS]

Gail,

As you well know, most folks that build fine pieces of furniture and cabinetry are their own worst critics. For the first few years of building my small line of furniture I would nearly drive myself crazy when a piece didn't come out as well as I liked. Finally I resorted to physically getting wifey out to the shop to do a "quality check" and when she okay'ed I would then breathe a little easier. Fortunately, she's not as critical as I would be, so we seemed to strike a balance. The end result was that all my cabinets were, or have been, bought from a customer through my dealer and over the years I was able to discern what was acceptable to ship out or not.

In your case, the actual design, obviously is more critical. Sometimes things just jump out as not looking just right. But even then beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One of the dealers I sell to is also supplied by another so called furniture maker. So called in that it's the ugliest type of furniture you'll ever lay your eyes on...but guess what, there's a small number of people who buys this stuff, unbelievably.

Anyway, glad to hear your customer was happy with your work!

Robert

[Gail O'Rourke]

Thanks everyone, it's great to hear the same stories. This type of apprehension also happened this fall...and I think that the thing of it is that the cabinetry that they are choosing, or in this case, that I am matching up to, I don't particularly like, so although the cabinets I am constructing are of quality, I don't embrace the look of them.

So I will go with what she said "it looks great" and collect my check on delivery.

[Mike Alagna]

I think the fact that you chose the communication route means a lot to the customer. I have found in dealing with clients that all most of them want is communication and you doing what you say you will do. Good call Gail.

[Steve Schoene]

I. She wanted Walnut but wanted me to pick boards that have light edges and dark centers for each board and wants the boards glued at the light colors. This was not an easy task and required a few trips to the wood store before I found enough wood to do this.!

Isn't that always the way? When you need to avoid sapwood almost every board you see is heavily afflicted, when its desired, it goes into hiding.

[Garry Smith]

Hello Gail,
Just last week I had the same type of cituation with a repair on a gun cabinet for a nieghbor.
They broke the door on the cabinet in transit. I had to make a new door. This is a cheap cabinet made from pine with a very poor sprayed on varnish stain. I had a heck of a time trying to match the finsih. After fideling with different stains and such I could get the door to look pretty good from the front but from the sides it did not look good to me.
I called my nieghbor to come to see the results. He was very happy as could be.
I think it is sometimes we just over think some projects.

Garry

[Gail O'Rourke]

Well I really did some communicating with my customer today during install when I told her that I had drilled a handle in the wrong location. It is paint grade so we patched it up...but it's funny how I forget all the good things that went well today and leave remembering only this. ( oh, and then leaving my sander there )

It is a kitchen extension...the lower cabs and wine tower (that's spice shelves on side of tower and the lower cabs are only 15" deep, under wine tower is pull out trash). The door match was three seperate profiles....also I replaced all the hinges in the entire kitchen with 35mm hinges, so had to take off all doors and bring back to shop to drill and bring back to install and then replaced all the handles. She will install granite counters.

The changes really did transform the room.

[John Renzetti]

Hi Gail, Very nice job on the kitchen cabinets. They really add to the whole kitchen.
take care,
John

[Steve Ash]

Nice extension to the kitchen Gail. As far as communicating with the customers, I check in with them from time to time just to let them know how things are progressing and any concerns I or they may have.

You did a very nice job on it!

[Chris Giles]

Gail,
I love your open solution for the wine rack cabinet. This type of request comes up quite frequently these days in my area, and I like this type of open arrangement where you see the bottles from the side as well as the front, and the window light might even dance through them in a colorful array. The spice rack on the side is also a nice touch. Great work!