Communication, a dying talent?

[CES020]

I know we all deal with these things weekly, if not daily, but this latest one was so puzzling to me I thought I'd share it.

Kid brings in a picture frame and wants something engraved on the frame. It's work we do not normally do, but more often than not, we take these jobs mostly because they are college kids trying to get something done. We never make money on them, so it's all about helping the college kids and they don't take a lot of time.

I told the kid that it would take me a couple of days, he said "No problem, I'm not in a hurry at all, any time within the next 3 weeks is fine".

The next day, the phone rings, I answer it and it goes like this :

Caller : "I dropped by yesterday and spoke with someone about a painting."

Me : A painting?

Caller : "Yeah, I came by and talked to a guy but I don't remember his name. I brought a painting in and wanted it engraved".

Me : A painting?

Caller : "Yeah, a painting, it was black and I wanted a quote engraved on it for my Mom".

Me : You mean a picture frame? Is this the guy that brought the picture frame in?

Caller : "Yeah, that's me, I'm just checking in to see if it was ready".

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

hahaha all the time. Customer came in the other day. (We make street signs) Asks for a couple different signs and a custom sign. We work out prices and I tell him alright I should have those for you tomorrow morning.
Customer: Oh that's no problem I don't need them till the end of the week.
Me: Alright well let me give you a call then whenever they are ready.
Customer: k sounds great

We got behind little bit so I put his signs off until the next day. Then as soon as we open. In front of the owner and everything.

Customer: Hey. Just came to pick up my signs.
Me: They are not ready yet, I told you I would call you.
Customer: No yesterday you promised they would be ready this morning.

WTF.

Now the owner is probably thinking I can't run production because people can't communicate.

 

[Gino]

Those are both good. I'm guessing we all have dozens of these examples, since we're in the business of communication, but you need not go so far as to your customers and their inability to communicate..... just read about ANY thread here and see after about the second or third post how the story gets turned around and inside-out. All because no one knows how to lay out a story, use punctuation or spell. Here, ya have it in writing as to how dumb we are. As for time frames, don't you give your customers a written piece of paper outlining of what you 're gonna do ?? Yeah, they're called a receipt, invoice, deposit slip, pick up slip..... anything which all bear today's date and the expected finish/due date.

Communications go both ways. ​

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Those are both good. I'm guessing we all have dozens of these examples, since we're in the business of communication, but you need not go so far as to your customers and their inability to communicate..... just read about ANY thread here and see after about the second or third post how the story gets turned around and inside-out. All because no one knows how to lay out a story, use punctuation or spell. Here, ya have it in writing as to how dumb we are. As for time frames, don't you give your customers a written piece of paper outlining of what you 're gonna do ?? Yeah, they're called a receipt, invoice, deposit slip, pick up slip..... anything which all bear today's date and the expected finish/due date.

Communications go both ways. ​

That is definitely correct it does go both ways. All of our customers that come in get a paper quote in their hand. The due date doesn't get filled in unless the customers requests the items by a certain time. In this case the customer said they were in no rush so no due date was given.

 

[Gino]

Well, now you can add another step to your process/policy. Fill all pertinent information in, so it doesn't come back to bite ya in the petunia.

 

[Marie]

Communicating the size of a job is a thorn in my side. I have always thought that the terms "horizontal" and "vertical" were the clearest way to communicate the dimensions of a sign - but over the years, I have reduced that to saying "left to right" and "top to bottom" because simple and basic are what the majority of people understand.

 

[TheSnowman]

Everyone that says "No big rush" generally assumes that they can swing in the next day and pick it up I decided. I had a guy on me about doing his trailer for two months and it was being custom built, so he didn't have it yet. Stopped in off and on for weeks asking if I had anything to show him yet, and I told him about 5 times I'd email it to him. I got the trailer worked into the schedule, finished up, and then all the sudden when it came time to pay, he didn't have time to stop in and pay, only had time to stop in each day before that and bug me about the project.

I think a lot of times people make up their own deadlines and don't tell us. I had a guy say "I just need them by the end of the week" last week. I had them done Wednesday but I was on the phone when he stopped in, and instead of waiting 30 seconds for me to wrap up, he just left some banners he needed fixed sitting on my table and took off and emailed me. Friday morning rolls around, so I call him to tell him his banners and his signs are both done and he can pick them up till 4:00 today since I knew he needed them that day. At 4:45 I get a voicemail that he's called and is coming to pick up his stuff since I told him I'd have it ready by the end of the day Friday. I called him back to inform him that I'd called him at 8:30 that morning and left him a voicemail that his signs were done and he should come get them. He then informs me that he doesn't check his voicemails until 9PM each night when he's home. I was like, oh, well that's convenient for you. Lucky for him I already had to come in Saturday morning to finish up some stuff, otherwise I'm sure that'd have all been my fault that he didn't get them.

Sorry to rant...but to answer the question, yes, we have more ways than EVER to communicate, and people still can't seem to get it down.

 

[Billct2]

What Gino said.
Every thread from a new member here asking for advice on a design doesn't get around to what they really meant till the 3 or fourth reply.

 

[Marlene]

Those are both good. I'm guessing we all have dozens of these examples, since we're in the business of communication, but you need not go so far as to your customers and their inability to communicate..... just read about ANY thread here and see after about the second or third post how the story gets turned around and inside-out. All because no one knows how to lay out a story, use punctuation or spell. Here, ya have it in writing as to how dumb we are. As for time frames, don't you give your customers a written piece of paper outlining of what you 're gonna do ?? Yeah, they're called a receipt, invoice, deposit slip, pick up slip..... anything which all bear today's date and the expected finish/due date.

Communications go both ways. ​

good points. agree that all you have to do is to read any given thread to see lack of knowing how to communicate is a lost art. also good point about the written piece of paper with the lead time.

 

[CES020]

Everyone that says "No big rush" generally assumes that they can swing in the next day and pick it up I decided.

I've come to that same conclusion Any time someone says "No Hurry", I start adding on rush charges In our cases, they tend to say "No hurry, any time within the next two weeks is fine", and then before they get to the first stoplight after leaving our business, they call and want to know if it's done yet. Then they proceed to call or email multiple times a day with a "I know it's no hurry, but I just wanted to check".

 

[TheSnowman]

Maybe people assume that no one ever returns phone calls anymore, so we'll just finish the job and it will sit here. I once had my wife drop something off to be repaired and they said they'd call me when it was done. She wanted to pick it up on her way back through, so she told me to call and follow up. I told her "they said they'd call me, and they haven't called, so I'm not going to be THAT GUY." Turns out, the stuff was done, and no one called me. Drives me nuts.

 

[CES020]

They are right up there with the "I'm in a bind, if there's anything at all you can do to help me, I would appreciate it. I'm sorry for such short notice", so you move things around, knock it out, call them, leave messages and email them that it's ready (because they were in a bind and needed it right away), and then they casually come by 2 weeks from now.

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

They are right up there with the "I'm in a bind, if there's anything at all you can do to help me, I would appreciate it. I'm sorry for such short notice", so you move things around, knock it out, call them, leave messages and email them that it's ready (because they were in a bind and needed it right away), and then they casually come by 2 weeks from now.

ahhhhhh drives me nuts. It happens all the time. Sometimes they want it next day so you stay overtime to get them done for them. And yea just like you said two weeks later they walk in like nothing is going on. I will murder you lady. I wasted two hours overtime and countless phone calls to try and get ahold of you and you walk in like you were never in a rush to begin with. I'll show you how valuable my time is. I guess it's probably worth a pinky, which one you want to lose.

 

[TimToad]

Its not only 6 year olds who suffer from ADHD in these frazzled times we're living in. Its also a symptom of how beaten down the average person feels by the crush of information, tasks, demands, etc. being thrown at them at a pace they never knew was possible or that they are equipped to handle.

We may feel targeted for this treatment, but I'm pretty sure this type of person treats the dry cleaner, restaurant server, etc. they encounter the same indifferent and disrespectful way.

Boosting one's self-esteem by pushing every vendor you buy something from is pretty tempting. We're sitting here staring at a box of 2,000 decals for a very regular and typically reliable customer who when I first met him, my first impression was "give this guy some Ridalin". He is an owner of a small, local HVAC company with a few vans on the road. For as spastic as he acts, you'd think he had 25-30 vans out there. These decals were printed and cut on September 16th.

When ordered, I was told he was "all out of decals", so can we knock them out quickly?

Go figure.....

 

[kanini]

Our latest mails from clients:

Over-communication:
"It should be on a white background but with the letters cut out so there's no background."

Under-communication:
"Make it look nice. Don't need a draft, just print it with a nice script font. But not too much script."

Measurements:
"It should be 32 letters wide. The longest name on the sign is 32 letters. I've counted them"
(yes, but what is the font then?)

Delivery time (customer stops by):
"Oh, I just stopped by in case they are finished. Yes, I know we said next week's thursday but..."

Last year I still cared about this and I and the employees sighed/cried together about the poor communication from clients. Nowdays we just have a glazed stare and give a half-hearted attempt to figure out what the... they possibly could mean. I think the fast pace today makes people just write a crappy email and don't even bother to read trough it before sending.

 

[CES020]

Fresh off the press....

Phone rings-

"Hi, it's been a while since we spoke, we need a sign"

Okay, what can you tell me about it? What size is it? What's it made from? What's it going to look like? (keeping in mind, this is a designer we've worked with in the past)

"Well, I'm not sure the size we want, but we need a price to quote the customer".

What's on it? What's the finish?

"I'm not sure yet, we haven't designed it. Can you tell me how much it will cost?"

Without knowing the size, the material, or the content?

"Well, it's probably going to be kinda like that last thing you did for us, but it'll be a different size, different material, and have different copy on it".

Can you give me anything? Do you have anything? A pencil sketch? A rough draft? Anything?

"No, I just need a price to tell the customer".

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

Fresh off the press....

Phone rings-

"Hi, it's been a while since we spoke, we need a sign"

Okay, what can you tell me about it? What size is it? What's it made from? What's it going to look like? (keeping in mind, this is a designer we've worked with in the past)

"Well, I'm not sure the size we want, but we need a price to quote the customer".

What's on it? What's the finish?

"I'm not sure yet, we haven't designed it. Can you tell me how much it will cost?"

Without knowing the size, the material, or the content?

"Well, it's probably going to be kinda like that last thing you did for us, but it'll be a different size, different material, and have different copy on it".

Can you give me anything? Do you have anything? A pencil sketch? A rough draft? Anything?

"No, I just need a price to tell the customer".

hahaha it's amazing how people work. I need a thing, how much will that cost?
what kinda thing?
you know the kind with the bolt. How much are they?
$1,000,000 Do you still want it?

 

[Gino]

With that kinda guidance and specs, I would venture to quote you somewhere between $ 25.00 and $225,000.00. I hafta protect myself for the many unknowns you've put upon me Granted, it probably won't hit the top number, but ya never know, huh ??

 

[Mike001]

"Of course I want it today!"
"If I wanted it tomorrow I would order it tomorrow!"

 

[BIG EASY DOES IT]

"Of course I want it today!"
"If I wanted it tomorrow I would order it tomorrow!"

You mean of course I want it today. If I wanted it tomorrow I would have waited till next week to order.