When other customers interfere with design...

Create a Post
H

Hanzrobo

Grumbler
Joined
Jan 30, 2009
Posts
28
Loc
Ventura, CA
AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGHHH! My head is going to pop like a tomato.

I did not ask your opinion! If my customer participates in this, I will excuse myself to let them finish.
 
Ah, that happened once. I was showing a couple a design, and I had them interested in a very nice closed corner frame. I was about to seal it all up when an antique dealer came in to pick up his $56 matting job, and suggested a much less expensive chop frame instead. They went for his idea, and I entertained murderous thoughts with a smile on my face.
 
I hate when this happens too but quickly try to get control of the design back to me by acknowledging their opinion and then saying "Different people have different tastes but what we have to remember is that the customer will live with it, not us so they are the ones who have to like it" and then go on to say "and in my PROFESSIONAL opinion....".

Hope it worked out for you!
 
Our shop is one big friendly place so this sometimes happens. I usually let them have thier say, and then steer the discussion back to where it should be by emphasizing the preservation aspects of the structure and the right design "in my professional opinion." You hit the nail on the head--thanks for the exact phrase.
 
Kirstie said:
"in my professional opinion." You hit the nail on the head--thanks for the exact phrase.
Click to expand...

Once I hit 40 (and 20 years in this business) I finally had the confidence to say this tentatively. Now at 25 years it is a breeze!

That being said I have no problem telling a customer when I don't know something and that I would be glad to research it for them or turn to our "Worldwide Framer's Discussion Board". Sounds impressive, no?
 
CAGallery said:
Once I hit 40 (and 20 years in this business) I finally had the confidence to say this tentatively. Now at 25 years it is a breeze!

That being said I have no problem telling a customer when I don't know something and that I would be glad to research it for them or turn to our "Worldwide Framer's Discussion Board". Sounds impressive, no?
Click to expand...

Oooh, I like that one. At 32 years in the shop I am still learning the lingo.
 
PaulSF said:
Ah, that happened once. I was showing a couple a design, and I had them interested in a very nice closed corner frame. I was about to seal it all up when an antique dealer came in to pick up his $56 matting job, and suggested a much less expensive chop frame instead. They went for his idea, and I entertained murderous thoughts with a smile on my face.
Click to expand...

You should have sent him an invoice for the difference with a note stating that you would be at his store redirecting customers to Target and Home Goods for less expensive replicas until he paid it.
 
LOL Jeff, you are so right. And even though the antique dealer said he was sure he would be doing more business with me, he has never been back.
 
I have a lot of artists and art instructors as customers. Last week one of them jumped in on a design and told the customer that an original should always be framed in a narrow frame. The customer trying to design was already annoyed by this help.

I flat out turned to the budinski and said "Have you ever been to a museum to see an original Monet exhibit". She replied yes. I then said "Did you happen to notice the 28" ornate gilded frame on the art". She replied that she did see that.

I looked her straight in the eyes and said "Why do you feel that you originals are so much less important that they only deserve a one inch black frame". She shut up and let me continue with my design.
 
Sometimes it's not just customers. I once worked as a designer under a lady (store defunct) for whom there were only two kinds of design: Good and Yours.

She was busy yakking it up with one of her friends when a girl about my age came in with a tube, and pulled out five wine posters from a wine festival she went to in France. At the time I was a new designer but I had been selling ice to Inuits in every job I'd ever had.

I asked my customer a few questions about the pieces, what she liked about them and where they were going to hang. They were going in her office in a motorcycle dealership and she liked them because she like food and wine poster art. Now,they were girly, no denying, but we talked right away about finding framing that would work on the art as well as in her office. We picked double mats and a wide black satin frame and she loved it and was about to spring for the good glass when my supervisor finished with her friend, wandered over to see what I was doing, took one look at our design and said, "No, no, no, no, no, not for French posters." Out came the gilded ornate frames and the cream linen mats and after both of us being talked to like idiots for about three minutes, the customer walked.

About four months later when I went to work for a competitor, I told the owner the gist of the story and surprise surprise he said he remembered that lady. She came into his store all indignant and already had decided on design for her $1000 of framing. That's not that big a coincidence, this is a smallish city. He remembered her because of the motorcycle dealership and because she complained that someone else had stepped in and ruined something she was feeling good about. I looked it up in the POS and sure enough, my exact design. I don't blame her a bit.

Do you ever get the customers who bring in a friend who is an "expert" and that person says things like. "Mats should only be white!" with all the authority of certainty.

I also get a big kick out of people that want me to nail lattice wood to their canvas because that is "gallery framing."
 
MabSadie2 said:
I also get a big kick out of people that want me to nail lattice wood to their canvas because that is "gallery framing."
Click to expand...

Yes and that is when I refer them to the fine designers/craftsmen at the Home Depot lumber department 2 miles down the road.
 
These are definitely some of the more frustrating design job moments for me, when this occurs. Particularly because, usually unwittingly, these butter-inners have in effect undercut you as the professional in regard to the task at hand, leaving you at least momentarily to stand there awkwardly, nodding/smiling of course, until you see a chance to steer the design input back to the original framer-client state.
Personally I recall one particularly complicated piece I had spent a moderate amount of time, building rapport with the client, establishing the purpose and goal of the framing/where it was going to be, etc. After a few almost moments (not quite at the awestruck framing moment, but skirting the edges), some interior decorator elsewhere on the counter felt it was her duty to share her advice on how to proceed with the design, much to the chagrine of myself, who stood there, shifting my weight until she was done with her say. Fortunately, my coworker had wrapped up the decorator's order/purchase, and she left soon after, upon which time my customer looked at me, and stated in a low voice "I really don't like what she did at all." I smirked, and continued on after a shared chuckle. Got a nice sized frame, double mat, fillet, and museum glass piece, despite the interruption. Unfortunately, that was by far the exception in this situation.
 
These situations come with our kind of work. One measure of success may be our ability to deal with them productively and profitably.
 
I handle this the same way as when I am asked to frame with a 1" mat. I tell them "I'm glad to frame it any way you'd like but my recommendation is this...". This makes is clear to them that they are taking responsibility for their own design and that you do not recommend it. I think interferance has only happened a few times in 20 years for me.
 
When I get the "white mats only" line, I say "That used to be the thinking. However, I have just come back from the framing convention, and the experts have discovered that a white mat calls attention to itself, where a soft neutral complementing the artwork enhances it. " Hey, I have ALWAYS 'just come back from convention'... depending on your interpretation of 'just'.
 
I tell them that if rule number one is white mats, then rule number 2 is to ignore rule number 1 whenever necessary. I end up with telling them that there actually are no "rules" that must be adhered to but only what is best for the piece.

They seem to like the renegade idea of breaking rules.

As for butinskis and such... i had a woman come in with her interior decorator who she flew up from Florida to help her do her house up here. As usual, this decorator had no idea what she was talking about and her color ideas s**ked big time. I flat out told the woman that those colors were all wrong and here is what I think would work. (I love this part here).. The woman agrees with me instead of her decorator and I have been framing for her for years now.

Even if she doesn't have anything to frame, she always stops in to say hi when she comes up for the summer.
 
It's true that most times, you can regain control of the situation. It's all about maintaining composure while being professionally spat upon.

The white, black, or cream mat "rule" comes from art teachers who believe in sterile, uniform backdrops. "Nothing should interfere with the art.", they say.
I will usually explain the non-rules of framing or my basic guidelines and method of selection while snickering at art school framing theory.
 
Jeff Rodier said:
Yes and that is when I refer them to the fine designers/craftsmen at the Home Depot lumber department 2 miles down the road.
Click to expand...
I actually got one of those jobs recently. None of my floater frames were minimal enough. Instead of referring this long time customer to HD, I bought the materials myself and made a floater frame (better than lattice though). Customer was very happy and I made a nice profit.
 
I guess it depends a little bit on who is interfering and how. When I have more customers at the same time, it usually happens, but not in a nasty way. My shop is friendly and very open so some customers feel part of the 'family'.

I usually have enough presence that the customer will listen more to me than the other customer.
But with a bit of good humor you can save a lot of terrible situations. Now if it's a so called professional trying to interfere, yes I would :fire: too! But I would still outwardly try to solve it with some humor.
 
Create a Post
Back
Top