I had to deal with my first disgruntled customer at work today and this whole situation was honestly something that could have been avoided had my boss not procrastinated and did things so last minute.
So for some background, this customer had been introduced to me as my boss's ex-boss kid, my boss had watched him grow up and he had came to us, along with his wife, to do renovation works for their upcoming home.
My role in this whole process is just purely the brains behind the design of the home, once the design aspect of it is done, I will pass the torch to the next person in charge, who is the Project Manager and my involvement will be significantly reduced. In my attempt to make this whole renovation as smooth as possible, I decided to visit the tile shop with the homeowners a month ago just to firm up on everything before the renovation would start. This was something I had taken initiative to do because I notice my boss's style with his other projects has always been to visit the tile shop literally one week before renovation begins and then just select the tiles for the customer super last minute, which is not the way this should be done, just based on my past experience at ID4.
The client and his wife had both taken leave just to make the tile shop visit last month possible and it was quite a fruitful visit, we were able to shortlist a few options and then finalize the selection within a week. After the tile trip, we even took time to come back to the office to confirm all the colors for the cabinets, including how the internal components would work, so my part in this whole renovation process was pretty much done last month and I had just been touching up and fine tuning on all my drawings so the Project Manager can have as much information as possible to ensure a smooth handing over of the torch for the project.
Fast forward to this morning, my boss suddenly requested for me to list down all the tiles that had been selected for the renovation because he wanted to order the tiles today, renovation starts next Monday, today is Thursday, ordering the tile now is just super last minute, but I figured since my role in this is done, everything else will now be in my boss's hands because he is the Project Manager for this particular project, if any issues arises, he will be the one who has to deal with them. I did all the calculations for the tiles needed and sends him the list.
And an issue arises.....
Few hours later, he drops me a text and informs me that the one of the tile that we had selected is unfortunately out of stock, this was the main tile for the whole renovation. I was really annoyed because the renovation will be starting next week, we literally only have 2 working days left to reselect another tile. I had met the both the clients in advance to finalize all the tiles JUST SO we can avoid last minute bullshit like this, they even took leave from work to meet me on a weekday for the visit, and now we are in this fucking situation because my boss decided to only make the order so last minute.
He already had all the information he needed to make the order weeks ago, but he just kept sitting on it. I knew we didn't have time to dilly dally anymore, so I shared the bad news with the clients as quickly as I could while my boss was still contemplating if he should tell them or I should tell them.
He should have been the one to tell them, but the bearer of bad news ended up being me because we have no time anymore, the homeowners need to know as soon as possible so we can come up with a plan and settle this in time for the renovation to commence next week.
Initially the husband didn't take the news very badly, but as the conversation progress, I could sense that he was getting more and more agitated, asking us in the group chat why the order was never made in advanced because we had literally confirmed them weeks ago. My boss just didn't bother to chime in, so I had to do the replies and that made it seemed like I was the one at fault for not ordering the tiles in advance.
I was really not in a good mood because I just felt really indignant about this whole thing. I did my due diligence as the designer, selected and confirmed everything that needed to be confirmed way in advance, but because of my boss's habit of procrastinating, all the advance work that I had done with the customers just went down the drain.
My boss and I headed to the tile shop to look for a replacement and the husband said he will also drop by, usually when I meet a customer who is upset over chat in person, they will drop the aggression they have been exhibiting in chat and approach the whole situation with a much friendlier attitude, but when this client came to the tile shop and saw us, he was NOT HAPPY.
I was in the midst of putting some alternative options together and when the husband approached us, he was just exclaiming out loud...
"What is going on? Why is this happening? Why like that?"
.... he was saying it with a slight smile on his face, but you can sense in his tone that he was very upset and was trying to mask his annoyance with the smile, I tried to explain that my boss and I have shortlisted a few tiles for him to choose from, and a few seconds later, my boss just bolts off to go look for other alternatives around the tile shop and leaves me alone with the unhappy customer. It was so uncomfortable
I was extremely unhappy, not at the customer because his anger is completely valid, but at my boss because this was an issue that had been caused by him due to his negligence, and he just kept running away from it, literally going to the furthest corner of the tile shop so he can avoid talking to the husband.
The husband walked around the tile shop a little after he looked at what I had counter proposed, comes back to me and ask me where my boss was because he wanted to talk to the both of us before his wife came, so all of us found each other and he basically expressed his disappointed at us. My boss kept coming up with excuses, saying all this is out of his control because the stock was only recently swiped up and to have a stock get wiped out so quickly is not a common occurrence, this made the situation worst because everything could have been avoided if the tiles had been reserved in advance like he, so the husband just got even more emotional, my boss also felt like he wasn't in the wrong, so he didn't feel the need to apologize to the client and instead kept reiterating how all of this was out of his control. I kinda just sat there and not say anything because to put it very bluntly, this is not my fault and shouldn't be my shit to clean up.
One of the salesperson in the store came over in the midst of all this and pulled my boss one side to explain the tile shortage situation, so my boss excuses himself and I was once again alone with the husband.
I was able to change topic and distracted the husband from the issue at hand, so the mood got less intense after that and when the wife finally arrives, the air just stopped feeling so heavy. I guess because he didn't know how his wife would react to the situation, the husband was initially really affected by it, but the wife didn't seem very upset when she arrived, and we eventually went back to looking for different options. We were able to confirm the reselection, but instead of just reselecting one tile to replace the one that's out of stock, they decided that they wanted to reselect all the tiles and just explore a new look.
Again. All of this extra work could have been avoided if my boss had just ordered the fucking tiles earlier.
If we had informed the customers that the tiles were out of stock two to three weeks before their renovation is scheduled to start, I'm sure the customers will still be understanding and just go visit the tile shop with me to reselect with no issues because 2 to 3 weeks advance notice would mean we DID make the effort to order in advance, and if it is out of stock then, then it is beyond our control because had already taken the precaution to attempt to order it early, 2 to 3 weeks would also have given us sufficient time to reselect the tiles and for me to properly update the drawings. I can completely understand the customer's anger because if I were them, I would also be livid, and I was livid as the designer of the project because it wasn't just the clients time that was wasted during the first tile shop visit, mine was wasted as well because that trip ended up being for naught.
I really got my work cut out for me because now, I have to rush out the 3D model for them with the reselected tiles within a day, just so they can have a visual of how everything will look together. Now I cannot help but wonder how many more fuck ups will actually happen once the renovation starts because to get the customers so upset before we even started the renovation is not a good sign.
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