9.00am
Arrive at work, grab a glass of water (I’m a caffeine-free zone!) and catch up on my emails from yesterday.
9.15am
There’s an email query from Dan in our artworking department. We’re dealing with a feather flag order from a customer but the artwork sent through isn’t good enough, as the images will only go up to a quarter of the stand size before they ‘pixellate’ (look distorted).
Obviously we want every customer’s stand to look brilliant so I promise Dan I’ll contact the customer and see if we can sort things out.
9.20am
Send an email to the flag customer asking if he has any higher-quality artwork that we can use. This one isn’t urgent so I’m not too worried, we’ve got a couple of weeks to get things organised. (Not like last Thursday, when we received an order for 20 branded tablecloths – these had to be matched to a specific Pantone colour, printed, cut to size, hemmed and despatched the next day! Now that’s what I call a timescale…)
10.30am
Get a call from a potential customer who wants a banner stand, but isn’t sure whether they’d prefer an 800mm or 1000mm display. We chat through the options and I point out that actually we’ve got a very special offer on at the minute, with our Genesis roller banner only £54. That’s around £100 cheaper than the other stand he’s considering and looks like a better deal to me, so I tell him that. He thanks me and places the order.
Our job isn’t focused on trying to get the most money out of customers. It’s about getting them the right display for their needs. We believe that the reason lots of people come back to us is because they know we care about them and work hard to do a great job.
11.20am
I haven’t heard back from the flag customer yet, so call to check if he’s at work. His colleague answers the phone and tells me the contact is on holiday, and this can wait until he gets back; so I make a note on the computer system to call the customer again next week.
2.40pm
I get an enquiry from a charity asking for three extra-large banner stands. We know price is going to be really important and I make sure we provide our usual charity discount.
The customer has a really tight budget so we talk about ways he could save more money – for example, by not ordering carry bags with the stands. In the end we work out a way of saving him £68 that he’s happy with. It might not sound like much but these things can make a big difference to people and we want to help wherever we can.
3.15pm
I get an enquiry about wind speed – really! A lady is thinking about buying one of our outdoor flags and wants to know what wind speed the product is guaranteed up to. It’s Beaufort Scale 4, which is 13-18 mph, if you’re interested; if you ever get that question at a quiz, remember you heard it here first ;)
4.00pm
A customer from a big retail client rings me. She wants a nest of plinths for some shop fronts across the country but isn’t exactly sure what to buy – so we talk through options that will suit different budgets. She’s going to check a few things at her end and call me back tomorrow.
4.25pm
Gareth in our team has just had an enquiry for some wide banners, as one of our customers is going to a particular event. The customer was thinking about a 1.8m banner but the costs are not much less than a pop-up stand, which is a lot more flexible – so we chat through different prices and options before Gareth calls them back.
It’s nice working together in such a lovely team as we use our skills to help each other. I’ve worked in this industry for 12 years and Marler Haley is a great place to work. We get a lot of enquiries from SMEs and charities and you really feel you are helping people – it might sound a bit cheesy but it’s true!
5.00pm
It’s been another good day at the office, apart from having someone poking around taking photographs that is…
Obviously I haven’t talked about everything my job involves but hopefully this post gives you a flavour of what our team does at work.
