Reply To: Upholstery – Restaurant Warning Signals

[mitchellreid]

Owners and Associates,

Recently I have received many calls needing upholstery work for customers we have never worked for before. I am not sure why, but perhaps their previous vendors have fallen by the wayside due to attrition caused by Covid or normal marketplace pressures. Either way I want to encourage you to be ready to take advantage of this unique time in upholstery as well as the other Dr. Vinyl trades, Interiors, Paint, Dents, and Wheels. There is an enormous amount of work to be had out there. I see it in Upholstery and Interiors, and I hear about it from our techs in the other trades. Please don’t miss out. It may mean traveling at little farther or working a little later than you have in the past, but I promise it will be worth. I just wanted to share with you a couple things that have happened to me recently.

I received a call…

…from our local YMCA about recovering parts of their children’s indoor gymnasium playground equipment. They had tried to purchase new pieces from the manufacturer to update their aging equipment when they found out it was just too expensive to replace everything they needed. So, they inquired about recovering with Dr. Vinyl and found it to be half the cost of new.

…from a Dave and Buster’s (not our Buster Coppage) who heard about us from one of their locations we service about 100 miles away. They needed some upholstery work done quickly before their CEO made his normal visit to their location in 2 weeks. It turned out to be a long install, all in the A.M., and one of the largest invoices I have written for a single night’s work. I thought there might be a question about the cost of the work, but I was pleasantly surprised by the reaction to the work and bill. The manager was so pleased with everything that he found some more work that he needed done. When I asked why he hadn’t mentioned this additional work earlier his response surprised me. He said, ” I needed what you did last night done first, and I didn’t want to overload you with the less important areas.” Furthermore, he gave me 2 rolls of vinyl to work with for future recovering of his store. To me that is a big step in a vendor/customer relationship. When they give you material for future work that means that you are now THEIR upholsterer.

…from an existing customer of ours, Panera Bread. They wanted to recover their aging booth backs while we there to service their normal booth bottom wear. This extra work multiplied their normal bill tenfold. They didn’t hesitate at the cost. They just asked how quickly I could get it done.

These are just calls I received last week. Please be ready the work is everywhere. Do whatever you can to be ready to receive this work.

This might even involve:
1.Seeing customers you have forgotten to check on in a while.
2.Updating your services offered or areas covered on the Dr. Vinyl website Find a Doc listing.
3.Considering reaching out a little further in the areas that you serve, not into another Dr. Vinyl’s territory but maybe beyond your own.

The possibilities are endless.
Only you will benefit from reaching out a little further.
Only you will gain from doing a little more.
Only you will know if there is more out there.

You will only know if YOU TRY.

Sincerely,
Mitchell Reid
The Wandering Upholsterer
“All Who Wander Are Not Lost”