Lessons Learned

This week I have learned a lot but I am going to focus on one or two main things.

One thing I have been told multiple times this week is when you are taking notes and/or a message,  always, always, always, take as detailed a message as possible an include the date and name of the person you are speaking with. The time of day is sometimes helpful as well to refer back to when the call was made.

Earlier this week a client contacted us about the travertine molding she had selected. When her contractor picked up the order that was delivered to us he brought it straight to the client’s house to be installed. She looked at the molding and thought it was the wrong molding. She quickly contacted us with the problem her problem.

The girl I work with, who has been working at inside outside a couple years, was the one working with this client. The first molding that was chosen by the client was different from the one that had been ordered and delivered because it was discontinued and a new one had to be selected. The employee of Inside Outside, let’s just call her Amy, had previously told the client about the discontinuation of the molding she had selected and that she would need to come in and choose another one. When the client came to select an alternative molding, Amy showed her the other options available. Amy did not take down any notes about which molding she chose, on what day or at what time, because she was very familiar with the molding the client chose and immediately spoke to the distributor and submitted an order form for the new molding selected.

The molding was delivered on time, and, jumping back to the beginning of the story, the client’s contractor came to pick up the order and delivered it to the client’s house. She then called us explaining that the molding she received is not the correct molding. When Amy was asked to pull out her notes from the day the client selected an alternative molding, she did not have any. The only thing Inside Outside could defend their actions with is Amy’s word and, when dealing with a client, that is not enough.

Onto the next portion of my story involving ME!

Amy was not going to be in the office till the end of the day so she asked me to find out if we could get another molding she had found, that the client approved, from the distributor in time. I called the distributor and first asked if they had the molding in stock. The woman I spoke to told me that the molding I was asking for had been discontinued and they had no more in stock. I thought I was going to have a meltdown, mainly because I knew Amy would be extremely frustrated, more than she already was.

After looking through the distributor information, I noticed the name of the company that made the molding and decided to take a chance and call them. I told them that I knew the molding was discontinued but was wondering if they had any more left in stock. They told me they had 41 pieces left and the project called for 38. At this point I was pretty excited because I had helped resolve a major issue.

Little did I know I had been talking with a company who refuses to do business with Inside Outside because of a past situation. This situation included a project that was using tile from this company. All of the tiles had an oily, blotchy sheen to them, that they were not supposed to have, so they sent a whole new order of correctly made tiles. The company then tried to charge Inside outside for both orders of tile when the first ones were unusable. This problem went on for about a year. The company called again, about three weeks ago, asking for us to pay what is due so apparently the situation is not over.

Obviously I had no clue about all the commotion going on with this company, so when I went ahead and ordered the molding from them, they did not recognize my name and agreed to send it to me.

EXCITED? YES!!

We told the client and she was very thankful for all of our help and was very excited herself.

Until….  The company called us back and said “We know who this is and we refuse to work with you all ever again”

Way to go Jody.  

All I could think was, we had just called the client and she was finally happy instead of angry, and now we have to call her back and tell her what had happened.

Amy and the owner of Inside Outside went to the client’s house to speak with her.

After a couple hours meeting with her, the client decided she liked the first molding, that she supposedly did not select, and all was well again.

Thank you Lord.

Lessons Learned:

-          Take detailed notes including the date, person you are speaking with and maybe even the time of day.

-          Become more familiar with the distributors your company works with