How to Save a Customer’s Order from a Disaster
We’ve all seen this scenario as heat printers. A customer says they want a design printed on shirts for their group and they supply you with the artwork file. You look at the design and think to yourself “this isn’t going to look good” for this customer’s order. What do you do?
Whether it’s the look of the design or their choice of ink color and shirt color, you need to decide whether to proceed with what the customer is asking you to do, or persuade them to make changes that will result in a better looking product.
Being an apparel decorator involves educating your customer as well as being sensitive to the customer’s feelings as well. The last thing you want to do is offend your customer. At the end of the day, we want to produce a good-looking product while giving the customer what they want.
However if you don’t say anything and print hundreds of t-shirts that don’t look good, the customer may never reorder again, and the work reflects back to your business causing others not to order from you.
Before you start ranting to your customer about how awful their artwork looks, or that the ink color chosen does not have enough contrast with the shirt color, stop to remind yourself you do not want to offend them. Their child, their best friend, or they could have designed the art.
Instead of an immediate reaction about the customer’s artwork, simply offer to show them examples of designs you have created. “Can I show you some things my artists have designed that are similar?” The Easy View® Online Designer is perfect for this. Use layouts to customize to create a professional design in seconds that your customers could prefer over their design. With a little luck, your customer will notice their design isn’t the best that it could be. Whether it be color placement, layout, or color choices, they will turn to your expertise to help them create something amazing.
Perhaps your customer brought you a good design, but the design is too detailed to put onto a busy patterned shirt. Or perhaps they want a Navy Blue design on a Black shirt and you know there’s not enough contrast to see the design. Either way, utilize Easy View and the Preview and Share function to show them what their design will look like on a shirt. You will be the hero by making them aware of the impending mistake they were about to make!
Preview and Share in Easy View lets you see the design on apparel to help your customer’s order.
One of the biggest misconceptions about producing custom t-shirts is the cost involved. It’s important to keep your customer educated of the costs involved with some of their choices. Your customer might not know of the extra art time involved with redrawing their artwork, or that putting a design in 4 different locations is going to add to the cost.
In addition to adding to cost, you can also save your customer by offering them ways to save money as well, like if they are having a fundraiser. They will have a better customer experience by learning what it takes to get the job done while helping them make the best decision.
For the most part, customers are open-minded. They want their finished apparel to look good and accept assistance from an apparel-decorating expert, so long as their original idea is taken into account. It’s being respectful and educating the customer that makes it a smooth customer experience and possible to save a customer’s order from a disaster.
