Off the Cuff: Avoid Errors with Order Acknowledgments

SHOP MANAGEMENT

Off the Cuff: Avoid Errors with Order Acknowledgments

May 11, 2009
By Mark L. Venit, MBA, Contributing Writer

Based on my field observations in this industry, I estimate that more than 95% of embroiderers and screen printers don’t acknowledge or confirm orders — especially orders received by phone and where there’s no paper trail. The verb “acknowledge” here refers simply to the act of sending out a written confirmation of an order placed with the vendor who’s selling this order.

Not acknowledging orders is a major cause of confusion, frustration, ill will, and, of course, screw-ups.

For obvious reasons, every apparel decorator would welcome the opportunity to learn about surprises well before they happen. And since your customer is usually — though not always — the party responsible for these surprises, you can help prevent pain and suffering with a little heads-up effort and timely, written communications. Successful operations serving the promotional products industry have a saying, “The acknowledgment is a given.” In other words, it’s an expected and vital phase of the process. If you’ve never heard the term before, I’ll help get you up to speed.

Here’s how an acknowledgment works for orders placed by a promotional products distributor (PPD):
• PPD sends an order to a vendor.
• Vendor’s data entry person reviews order.
• He or she enters complete order data in production system.
• He sends PPD a copy of what was entered, with all pertinent details.

That final step is the formal “acknowledgment.” When it’s done right, the acknowledgment is a great tool for the vendor to spot trouble before it begins.

For instance, over the phone the PPD may have said “Run exactly as before,” referring to an order from the past for polos embroidered with a left-chest logo. However, the most recent order the vendor ran for that PPD might have been for heavyweight canvas bags with a large design.

Now we’ve got a challenge.

On the phone with the vendor’s data entry person, the PPD knew he was referring to the last order for the same customer who has now re-ordered polos. However, the vendor’s employee can’t read the PPD’s mind. When he says, “Run exactly as before,” that’s going to refer to the most recent job the vendor did for the PPD, not the most recent job done for a specific PPD client.

By sending an acknowledgment of the order, the onus to get it right shifts to the distributor. This means the PPD has to review the acknowledgment and ascertains that the order is correct. If not, he’s the one who knows what needs fixing.

The vast majority of orders are correct when the PPD submits complete paperwork, which makes acknowledgments a simply faithful re-statement of that order. Trouble comes when orders are given and taken over the phone. This allows for someone on either end to say or enter a detail incorrectly. Without a formal order acknowledgment, the distributor would not find out about a mistake until it’s too late. Seeing an acknowledgment gives the end-user customer or PPD a second chance to catch his own mistake or a first chance to catch yours.

In cases where the order is for contract printing or embroidery, your instructions were to expect “36 long-sleeve polos being sent from XYZ Sportswear.” What happens if the shipment arrives and it’s actually 34 short-sleeve polos?

Without a written acknowledgment, each party runs the risk of taking a hit. Neither has a tight paper trail, and both are compromised about who is at fault and what must be done to straighten things out. Most importantly, no paper trail leaves it open in terms of who’ll be responsible for the additional costs, if any, of finding, running and delivering additional pieces or running an entirely new job.

Never take order information from a customer while you’re doing 10 other things at the same time. Move on to one or two of them after you hang up, then come back to your notes on the phone order, enter the order as you think you wrote it, and send a formal acknowledgment. If you find out later that you goofed? Whew! The acknowledgment saved you from a costly error and a disagreement with your customer about who is at fault and who eats the extra costs.

Customers placing orders verbally can make mistakes too. They are likely to say one thing but mean something else as they are reading from scribbled notes on a scrap of paper. They might give you the wrong style number, wrong count, wrong source info, or wrong decorating instructions.

The customer shows up to pick up another order and asks where the job is from the phone order? He says you promised to put a rush on it and have it ready for pickup with this other order, but you don’t remember that promise. In fact, you’re pretty sure you never made any such commitment.

A written acknowledgment ends that argument before it begins. Whatever you agreed to or didn’t — a rush deadline with or without a fee or a premium price — are right there on the acknowledgment.

Acknowledging orders has added benefits. You can add promotional offers and provide information about new products offerings, timely specials and enhanced service capabilities. If you’ve recently mastered 3-D embroidery, high-density inks, or four-color process work, here’s an easy way to get the message out or reinforce a prior announcement. If you’ll be changing your prices or policies soon, note that on all order acknowledgments for a period of time before the change, and the customer loses his chance to say he never heard about it.

Beyond the handy effect of covering behinds and clarifying discrepancies, there’s yet another positive effect of sending acknowledgments: It tells your customer that you care about details and about getting things right the first time around. In this simple act, your professionalism just got acknowledged — and upgraded — as well.

So, do everyone a favor: Acknowledge orders in writing!

Mark L. Venit, MBA, is president of Apparel Graphics Institute Ltd., Ocean Pines, Md., which provides management and marketing consulting and proprietary research to apparel graphics companies throughout the Americas and Europe. He also is the chairman of ShopWorks Software LLC, a provider of industry-specific business software. Venit teaches pricing, strategic marketing, salesmanship and other business management topics at the Imprinted Sportswear Shows. You can reach him at markvenit@cs.com.

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