Word on the Street by Kevin Carty
You have experienced it a million times: Sometimes the simplest statements can either ruin your day or make it all worthwhile!
As a parent, I am very conscious of this. There’s nothing worse than when your child shows you something they drew or created with Lego’s, all excited, and your response is, “What is it?” or “I am busy. I will look at it later.” No matter how bad or unrecognizable it may be, I always tell my kids, “That’s beautiful. Tell me all about it.”
As adults, we are much the same. We want people to respect what we do.
Well, I’m going to toot our horn a little, and honestly, I am fine with that. This week, we had one of the best compliments you could receive. Tyler Poage from Exhibits Northwest Portland had a client preview at Classic Exhibits. The job is a 40 ft. custom island with multiple backlit counters, downlighting, and large silicone edge graphics. After several long days and nights on the Production floor wrapping up the project, our crew had 95% of the booth set and ready for the preview on Friday afternoon. The only things missing were some graphics that had not shipped.
Well, the client walked in and took a few minutes to check it out. Then Tyler introduced me to her. Her first comment was, “This is the best first look at a new build I have ever been a part of. Thank you!”
Now, take it how you want, but to me, and more importantly to Edie (the PM of the project) and about 15 production guys that poured their sweat into this build, that was a simple but powerful statement. I shared it with everyone a few minutes later to make sure they all knew their hard work was appreciated by the client. And every last one of them got a new look on their face. Before that, they just looked tired, but after hearing the feedback, they all brightened up and humbly said they were glad the client was happy.
Sometimes, what may seem to be a simple compliment, can make a significant impact on others. This was the case here. I am not sure the client knows how much her compliment meant to our crew, but I look forward to sharing the reaction if I see her again.
Kudos to Wood Fab, Set-up and Assembly, Instructions, and Edie for a job well done. And thanks to Tyler and Exhibits Northwest for bringing us such a great project.
I hope you have a great and restful weekend with your families. Like you, we will be hitting the reset button this weekend in preparation for more creative projects coming through the shop.
Take care.
Kevin Carty
http://twitter.com/kevin_carty
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/kevin-carty/3/800/32a
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