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ASK THE EXPERT: April 2015

Special Order Mess
“A customer for a large company ordered a couple doors with a salesperson from a different branch location of our company. The doors are wrong, and we’re not sure who is at fault, but this particular salesperson will not take the doors back. I deal with another contractor for same company. His boss asked him to call me, to find out if I can do anything to get the doors taken back. He does a lot of business with me, but I’m not involved in this sale in any way. Do I get myself mired into a sticky situation to help my customer, or do I back off and say, ‘Sorry, there is nothing I can do?’”

Signed, Stuck in the Middle

Dear Stuck,
If you are involved in LBM sales long enough, you will surely run across a case of we said/he said regarding special order goods. Every LBM dealer I know has the dilemma of a “bone pile” of orphan windows and doors as evidence of this accuracy of this statement. Be the root cause bad customers, bad staff, bad vendors, or even bad policies, we all often learn more from mistakes than successes.

This said, good customers are hard to find, even those who may have a loose cannon or two on their staffs. I would advise you to do what you can within your company to calm things down, even if it means absorbing these two doors into your inventory. Given your involvement with the large customer (and I am guessing you have more to lose than your colleague), every experienced manager should understand your interest and mediation value towards retaining this good customer. And don’t forget to reach out to your door manufacturer/distributor. As your partner, they may have a better opportunity to re-sell these doors than you. Again, as a worst case scenario, offer to accept a substantial portion of the original cost and move on.

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But first, what if there is documentation that supports your colleague in this dispute? You might try suggesting that both your company and the valued customer share in the loss. Given a 25% margin, you could offer to split the original sell price and recover 66% of your original cost. That’s a small price to pay for learning about a character flaw among one of your clients. Forewarned is forearmed. On the other hand, if you find the documentation lacking (no signature,
incorrect or missing information, etc.), it’s critical that you or your colleague bring this messy situation to a close quickly. A quick apology will result in an appreciative customer, an enhanced relationship and, hopefully, a door re-order.

Last but not least, push your managers to update your special order policy, including required customer signatures for any special orders greater than $100, and conduct mandatory special order training. While we learn from our mistakes, let’s make sure each mistake happens just once.

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