FollowWhat do you do when a mistake happens on a promotional products order you’ve spent hours working on? Read on for some proven solutions…
Last week, I received the email below from a promotional product distributor This is what she said…
“I’ve recently encountered a bunch of order headaches because of factory mix-ups, miscommunication and delivery driver issues. One of the strengths that I am proud of is my attention to detail. This has won me much business over my 20- year career but with all of the recent factory troubles, this doesn’t seem to matter… I seem to always be “fixing” mistakes or issues caused by other parties. As a 
distributor, I am only as good as the suppliers that I use and this is happening with some of the “best”.
Can you relate?
In the promotional products industry, where annual sales are more than 21 billion dollars and growing, mistakes are bound to happen. What can you do to minimize those mistakes and keep your clients happy?
Here are nine Best Practices that will help.
- Give the bulk of your business to a core group of top-rated promotional product suppliers. When suppliers know you and your company they are much more likely to “bend over backwards” to correct mistakes. Get to know your core supplier’s staff and their inside and outside sales reps. If your top suppliers have a multi-line rep, get to know him/her as well. When you have an ongoing relationship with a supplier, problems tend to get resolved much more quickly.
- Get a pre-production digital proof or physical proof on all orders. When you have a signed proof, you have back-up to compare to the actual product. With proofs you can avoid mistakes before they happen.
- Get price quotes and delivery date acknowledgements. This will give you a paper trail should there be a pricing or delivery dispute.
- Follow up consistently. Follow up at least once a week to make sure your orders are being produced as promised. Keep your clients in the loop as well.
- Get a post- production product sample sent to your office. If a supplier makes a mistake, you will be the first to know and can take care of the problem in a timely fashion.
- Make delivery arrangements ahead of time. Some trucking companies will not do inside deliveries. Some larger orders require pallets and delivery docks. You can minimize delivery headaches when you check on delivery requirements ahead of time with both your supplier and client.
- Apologize and tell the client what you can do. Even if you did everything right, and it’s not your fault, a mistake or mishap happened and you still need to apologize. You are the sales representative and the person your client is relying on. Sometimes you many need to offer a discount or re-do the order. When you work with a core group of reputable suppliers most will work with you to resolve the problem to the satisfaction of all parties.
- Reach out to your colleagues and suppliers for help. There are many social media promotional products industry forums that you can join where you can post a problem you’re facing and quickly get a response from a colleague or supplier who may be able to help. Here are two forums to start with: On Facebook: Promotional Products Professionals. On LinkedIn: PPAI Industry Professionals Networking.
- Use an Order Entry Checklist. When you have a visual checklist of what needs to be done with every order you’ll minimize mistakes. The FAST TRACK to Promotional Products Sales Success program contains an Order Entry Checklist that will save you a ton of time and effort.
Keep in mind, mistakes are bound to happen– it’s not the mistakes that your clients will remember as much as how you reacted to them and what you did to fix them.
What do you think? How have you reacted when a supplier made a mistake on an order? How do you keep your clients happy and buying more? Please comment below.
Definitely facing many of the same issues!!
It is our responsibility as the distributor to make everything “right” to our client. Most suppliers will work with you especially if it is their fault. If they won’t, I would not work with that supplier again.
Meanwhile, if the client / customer involved has been your customer for quite some time, they should be understanding if you take care of the problem and hopefully if they need the product asap, you are able to make this happen.
However, a bigger problem can be when it’s a brand new customer or even a fairly new customer who likely switched to you from someone else. All you can do is apologize and do everything in your power to make everything “right”. I think the rest is out of your control which can be frustrating.
Apologies are necessary to our clients, although not always received well. Had offered a discount on re-order after fixing the first mistake and order was produced properly, but invoice was mixed up and just a huge mess. Thought I was retaining this client, but factory continues to make mistakes and it’s embarrassing!!!! This is a supplier who had been around for at least 25-30 years, not new to the industry.
Rosalie, I agree with everything you have said with one exception. I do not offer discounts unless it was something to do with a delivery person not doing their job. If, in any way, there is an issue with the product, and I offer a discount, I am telling the client that it is OK for them to receive something not of top value from me. I feel that it is my job and my reputation to be sure the client gets exactly what they were looking for, and if it means redoing the order at my expense, that is my issue. I can then work things out with the supplier.
In over 30 years in the industry, I have never missed an in hands date. I stay on top of everything, or make sure my assistant does.
Things happen. It is my job to make things as easy as possible for my clients. They know they can rely on me to make things right. Giving them a discount, to me, is a way of telling them that I will accept less that 100% on their behalf
The #1 thing is to make sure your client is taken care of- whether this means taking a loss, or creatively solving the issue with the order at your own expense. There are times when I do my supplier’s job for them. It’s par for the course, so make sure you do business with suppliers that will take care of you. That being said, suppliers are human too, and you can’t destroy a relationship over one bad order experience. That’s not being a partner. And if a client severs a relationship with you over one bad experience with your distributorship, well, they’re not being a partner to you either. All you can do is babysit the order with the supplier (everyday if you have to) to make sure it goes as smoothly as possible. And even if you do that, the order can still go awry. Sometimes, it just happens. What matters is how you react to it. 🙂