From: "Balloon Decor" <sales@balloondecor.com.au>
To: <CLEvents@aol.com>, <dyrw@jvlnet.com>, "BHQ" <balloondeco@balloonhq.com>
Subject: Re: Help, this client scares me!!!
Date: Fri, 19 May 2000 14:42:46 +1000
> No One company can make or break your business! It may seem that way when
> your just starting out but don't believe it for a second>
...........................................................
> Good Luck,
> Anne-Marie Kelley, CBA
> Classic Events
I appears to me that all that needs to be said regarding this matter can be
summed up in that vey poignet comment above.
Your better to develope a policy of 'not using the client supplied balloons'
just to save yourself a all that hassle. Well that is of course unless you
have very reliable info about where they came from, brand, size and most
importantly where they've been and how long they were there. If that sounds
a little overreactive then try using a clients balloons that have been
sitting in the back of his car (in the sun) for the last 3 months. Ho yeah!
did he say they were used at his son's 10th birthday party and were just
what he wanted?
Sure what some clients want and what they need can often be worlds apart.
We've used provided stock before and it's not always as bad as it can sound
but there are times when we've done this in the past and unfortunately
found it vital to explain several times during the one job that we take no
responsibility for the results.
For those who are interested I'd like to share a recent nightmare.
The story.
Last Christmas a major Shopping Centre who is a regular client had 3,000
(poorly coloured red) balloons printed with a white Christmas message
supplied with cups and sticks from their head-office in another state and
need my company to inflate them for a give-away.
1st:
We were asked to utilise about 50 of them with plain gold and green balloons
for a Christmas party held for the Centre's clients.
PANIC TIME! as we inflated the balloons the problems started to arise the
poor quality of the balloons meant that they were not inflating with a
constant shape. They were popping
at a 'Tommy gun' rate and the print was so bad that some of the double sided
prints were overlapping. Some were even on an angle. We estimated that
approx 20% of the printes were of exceptable quality We did our best ( as
you do) and tried to keep the decor looking presentable but we were so
embarrassed at the results we even sneaked out the backdoor so none of our
other regular clients in the centre saw that it was us who provided the
'ugly decor'.
Of course we informed the Centre Management about the poor quality of the
provided stock and although disappointed they excused us from all blame and
thank us for our professional efforts.
2nd:
A week later we were also contracted to inflate the remainder of the stock
with air over
a 3 day period and place them on a cups and sticks for a promotional
give-away. SHOCK HORROR! . Again many of the stock popped during inflation,
the print quality continued to be poor and when we finished the job we
calculated the quantity of stock provided we discovered that it was at least
500 cups and sticks short and approx 300 balloons short. Considering that
this shipment was duplicated for at least 15 other branches around the
country our clients head-office got not only got short-changed but also had
a very poor quality two sided print. Another situation we didn't want to
come back and haunt us. We did the job in the best manner we could and our
now 'sheepish' client was extremely grateful and even apologised for the
embarrassment imposed by using the stock they provided. A situation neither
of us should have been in.
This is a true story and happened less than six months ago.
Since then we have done a second give-away for the same client of 8,000
with a full colour print (two sides) along with a 3,000 one colour print.
Admittedly the client likes balloon give-aways but if we hadn't been 'sharp'
enough to inform the client of the poor quality of the stock and reminded
them we had nothing to do with the undesirable quality, they may still have
a bad taste in their mouth over their Christmas experience and we could have
lost a very balloon friendly client of 10 years.
The Moral:
Be careful.
Seano
BTW these days while I'm in my socks I usually have different ones (pattern)
on each foot.
I believe it must be a pair because I've got two of them (one for each foot)
and I've always got another matching set in the draw at home. But of course
they're for the opposite feet. I'm not sill I know my left from my right.
Right?
Questions : Does this make me 'twice the decorator in my socks' or just half
the decorator as anyone else? Does it all depend on me putting my best foot
forward or being careful not to take one step backwards?
Am I really undecided?
I can't make up my mind.
Please feel free to LOL
*
* *
Balloon Decor *
P.O. Box, Dingley Village
Melbourne, Australia *
Ph 61 3 9558 0723 Fax: 61 3 9558 0717
0414 546 173
www.balloondecor.com.au