Coach's Corner
by Fred Albrecht
$85,000.00 ERROR - What do I do now?
Over the years, I have continually coached all of our sales reps and employees to appreciate the true value our "preferred" vendors bring to us. No it is not a "magic pill" that makes all human error leave the universe, they make mistakes too. I wanted to share this story with you all and then read on for the "moral of the story". Here are Tracy McClure's own words describing the shock and awe when a misprint was found on a $85,000.00 order that had been proofed three times, original art, virtual proof and finally a production sample. The first two were approved and correct, the final production sample had the word "CHILDREN" misspelled, missing the "i" in Children. The production sample was sent directly to the end user and signed off on an approved by them....here is Tracy's story:
This order started to go "SOUTH", when the factory realized that their factory in China imprinted over 30% of these "crooked". When in the process of redoing the bad imprinted ones (in the states), they realized the logo had a misspelled word. Now the proof didn't have a misspelled word, and we approved a CORRECT PROOF. But, when China ran a "pre-production sample", NONE OF US CAUGHT the misspelled word including the client who received it and signed off on it. Because the small text under the main logo was so small, and the word was like an optical illusion....as if it was correct. My client approved it, so all 50,000 pieces were ran with a misspelled word. Just goes to show you when your approving a pre-production sample, get your magnifying glass out. We have approved many an overseas order, but just goes to show you folks....THIS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU!!! (so beware). When we first caught this misspelled word, and knew we had 50,000 pieces, I called my client, I said we both (the client and Albrecht) signed off on this, so we are responsible for this. My client's response, "I have a sick feeling in my stomach". We got back to her 4 hours later and said, The owner of Albrecht, and the owner of the factory (EVANS), are going to redo the 50,000 pieces at no cost to you. Her response.....THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, I will take better caution next time when approving a pre-production sample. NOTE: we never told the client we were all scrambling days before this because we thought 30-40% of the job was imprinted crooked. Evans came thru for us!!! And re did 50,000 pieces in the states in 7-10 business days (client said AMAZING!!!) Client is very happy and cannot believe we are "redoing" them at no cost to them.
When this all happened I was in shock, and in Chicago at the ASI Summer Show, away from my desk and p/o (I had no numbers to call to get all this rectified), and quite frankly I was in shock. So if Cory, Tina and Alicia wouldn't have taken this over I don't know what I would have done. THANK YOU EVERYONE FOR MAKING THIS VERY BAD SITUATION TURN AROUND........
Tracy McClure
(248) 240-5716
Now the Moral of the Story:
1) Evans is an awesome supplier and one of our "preferred vendors", we could easily have outsourced this item, it was a simply "hot pad". We could have quoted this direct to China or through an importer, we CHOSE to rely on our great supplier at a higher net cost. I do not believe any other supplier would have redone these at no charge given the final production sample was signed off by us and the end user. Certainly if we had sourced these direct overseas and prepaid the Chinese Supplier, our money would be gone and we would be out of luck. Evans had the US manufacturing capability to back up the China source and remake the order and still get delivery in time.
2) Tracy had all her "ducks" in a row, she had all of the SIGNED documents from the client showing the CLIENT had actually SIGNED off on the proof. This reinforced to he client that she had responsibility in the matter. Awesome job on her paper work as always!
3) We saved an untenable situation and tuned Tracy into a HERO with her client.
4) Tracy relied on here entire inside support team to manage the crisis and allowed us to resolve the bad situation without "beating up" the factory, Evans was all about finding the solution that worked for all of us even at a huge loss to them financially. The president of the company was in the production facility helping to remake the order.
5) Proforma Albrecht's Purchasing Clout - In addition to the 400 Million dollars purchasing clout, our relationships with our suppliers mean more than GOLD to us which is why we treat them as true partners with respect each and every day. You never know when you need that one BIG favor.
6) SELL MORE EVANS TO SHOW OUR SUPORT FOR THEM AND TRACY!