So I am having a bad day. Am I not allowed? We can’t be perfect all the time, how boring would that be. I think we all need to remember the world didn’t stop turning because someone didn’t get their embroidery. Don’t get me wrong, I take my job very seriously and give 110%, will work evenings and weekends and serve coffee as I do back flips for my clients, but we are not saving lives here folks. So if the design doesn’t turn out great on the less than high quality cap (good thing I didn’t make a typo) let’s talk before you send me a rude email. Due to time differences that may mean I wake up, have a coffee and start my day with that rude email. Or worse yet I wake up and get the email BC, before coffee!

It always amazes me when a client calls and says they have an ‘issue’ with a design and expect you to telepathically know what it is and how to fix. Telling me it looks bad doesn’t provide the information I need to find the problem. We sample all designs before shipping them out on a Tajima single head machine. As a client pointed out the machine is getting a bit long in the tooth but since it has never done an honest days work in it’s life I think it is probably pretty good at what it does. We use it for sampling of our digitizing only, since that is all we do. It has never done a run of more than my daughter’s t-shirts for her theatre group. So when I run a sample I figure it’s a good example of what a client will get. Since I have been doing this job for more years than I sometimes want to remember usually there are not many surprises, but embroidery being what it is, every rule has an exception. ( Doesn’t that apply to learning French as well?)

Let’s get back on topic. I start my day with a customer complaining about a design and it’s BC. I explain that my sample looks good so I need to see what happened on their machine. I ran flat and they ran on hats, something they hadn’t mentioned when placing the order. Had I known I would probably have used satin stitch border instead of runs. Hats can create ‘issues’ some can be predicted others can be unforeseen. Well I might have well been talking to my husband for the amount of listening that was happening. As a digitizer it is important, no imperative that we see what a problem is before we can address it. Machines react differently, move differently. I adjust my digitizing according to what I know about their machine, but bottom line is I have to see it. Most times a scan is adequate, occasionally I need to see the sample in order to play detective and analyse what went wrong. Talking to the operator can sometimes help but I have found most operators don’t actually watch the machine they just react when it stops.

OK, OK I am done ranting, what’s the lesson in all this since a blog is suppose to be informative? Well I guess in a world of technology and impersonal business transactions it’s your response time and desire to problem solve that will make all the difference to your clients. Did I mention the L key fell off my keyboard today as well?  On that note I am going to have a cocktail!

The Embroidery Dinosaur

Beverley Field