WHAT CUSTOMER SERVICE LOOKS LIKE TO ME

Much of the awards industry takes the week between Christmas and New Year’s off. When we were a really tiny company closure was the only way to get a break and we’ve never changed it. Naturally we have auto-responders on our email but, as I can check email from anywhere I do. The following is not to blow my own horn – it is to illustrate how hard we will work for our good customers.


12/27 there was a panicky email from a really good customer. She’d just found out that she needed 5 of one of their custom pieces – that typically take 3 weeks to supply – were needed in Florida on 1/18 and she rightly feared we wouldn’t get the order done in time. Happens this is a piece we have made to spec for us by another Vermont company. Luckily they had not closed and it was a pretty quiet week.


I went into the store to review previous orders (the point of sale system looks better and better all the time) to make sure the right pieces got ordered. Next the info got sent to my supplier and he was able to proof me back that afternoon. The customer wanted to make a wording change, so we went back and forth a bit. But by 12/28 we had full approval to get the pieces into production. They will get to us in time for us to do our part and ship them out, expedited to be in Florida 1/16.


Another customer had a similar situation. He’s a master craftsman we do wholesale engraving for. A 75 piece order of copper flasks and shot glasses had come up that HAD to ship 1/5. If he couldn’t get them engraved the whole order died. As we traded emails I was able to assure him that if he could get the pieces in early Monday, I’d clear the decks and do them myself (as we’re short staffed Mondays).


They made for a pretty full day but he was pretty happy when he picked them up Tuesday morning.


We love to work with supplier who develop relationships with us and are willing to help us out of a jam or consistently do exemplary work – my hope is you do too.