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order confirmations with ship
dates and then provide me with
tracking numbers. Tracking
numbers are especially important
to our clients, particularly when
an order ships to a hotel or event
outside of the corporate office.
I also think it’s critical
to develop and maintain
relationships with customer
service representatives (CSRs)
and I use a tool in the supplier
portion of SAGE that enables me
to store notes; this also where I
save my CSR’s name, extension
and email address.
5
Be ready to handle
any mistakes.
Recently
we sent a large rush order to a
supplier and the order shipped
on time but somehow the
shipping department messed
up the shipping labels. Nobody
on the supplier end noticed
when generating the label on
the FedEx software that it was an
invalid address (or they noticed
and didn’t make the correction).
The order was supposed to ship
to a client inWashington for
an event but the label had our
company name, the client’s
address inWashington, and our
city, state, zip. Luckily, the next
day we received a call from the
FedEx depot, about an hour
fromour office, stating they had
five boxes with a bad address.
I realized it was the rush order
that had to be delivered that
day. Fortunately, we generally
include a fudge factor of one to
two days in every order giving us
amargin of safety for unforeseen
circumstances. We contacted our
supplier who immediately went
on the defensive and instead
of focusing on remedying the
situation started with “we rushed
the order and wouldn’t have done
it for anyone else.” I stopped him
right there and told him that the
focus is always on the customer
and to please help re-route the
packages and I requested to use
their FedEx number. As an aside, I
wasn’t happy to see the boxes this
supplier used were falling apart.
We got the boxes redirected, the
client received her merchandise
in time for her event and we
voluntarily discounted her invoice
for being late. We also requested
and received an adjustment to our
invoice from the supplier.
Nobody is perfect. Mistakes
happen and when they do
my policy is to address the
situation head on and take
responsibility. As a manager
in our company, I don’t blame
my staff, my supplier or the
shipper—I apologize on behalf
of all parties and strive to make
things right with the customer.
I learned a long time ago from
Bart Christensen, a former
manager at 3M Promotional
Markets, about the lifetime
value of a customer. My first
account, established in 1982,
is a family-owned lumber
company in Los Angeles. I’ve
been providing their calendars,
pens and coffee cups for the past
34 years. Look at your customers
as an annuity—if you treat them
right, they’ll keep coming back.
Consistency is a good thing.
6
Thank your supplier
partners.
I’ve
heard more than once from
supplier principals how some
distributors are consistently
abusive and ungrateful. Before
entering the promotional
business, I worked with my dad,
a glazing contractor. I watched
how well he treated his suppliers
and paid his bills on time. To
showmy gratitude to a CSR for
going above and beyond the call
of duty, I’ll send a handwritten
note, and for extraordinary
service, I’ll send a nominal
gift with a thank-you card.
My recommendations to
you come frommany years of
experience. I’m reminded of a
motivational speaker named
Charlie “Tremendous” Jones,
who gave a presentation about
how he built a large and viable
insurance company. After
the speech, an anxious new
salesman, striving to succeed,
asked Jones how he became so
successful. Jones replied “Good
judgment
.”
The young man
then asked, “Well how do you
get good judgment?” He then
replied,
“
Experience.”The young
man, eager to learn all he could,
pressed on. “Well how do you
get experience?” Jones replied,
“Poor judgment
.”
Our business is a challenging
one and is not for the faint of
heart. Unlike other jobs with
schedules, we’re on call all
the time. Ours is a business of
constant interruptions. I wish
it were more predictable but
it is not. When a client calls
and says, “I need to place
an order for an event next
Tuesday,” it’s important to
respond quickly. Every step
will flowmore smoothly if you
already have solid relationships
with suppliers who have the
inventory and production ability
to make things happen.
Ken Tuvman, CAS, is
national sales manager at
distributor A.K. Rose, Inc., in
Chanhassen, Minnesota.
Nobody is
perfect. Mistakes
happen and
when they do
my policy is
to address the
situation head
on and take
responsibility.
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JANUARY 2017
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