Sunday, 23 Oct 2016 15:03 GMT

Issues in the Sign Industry

David Catanach, director of the British Sign and Graphics Association, tackles thorny issues that continue to blight the sign industy, highlighting the pitfalls of sub-contractoring

You can always get what you want

My wife and I were fortunate enough to have a trouble free and pleasurable journey by train to the South of France this summer for a week of R and R in and around Cannes. We stopped off in Paris on both the outward and return leg to break up the journey and decided that we should stay in one particular hotel on the outward journey and a different one on the return leg.

Previous experiences of Parisienne hotels set me up with a foreboding of over-priced establishments, small rooms, a view of a brick wall from the window, rude staff, and drains. I do try to keep an open mind under most circumstances, but the problem with an open mind is that prejudices can easily sneak into the vacant space—once bitten, twice shy and all that.

Happily, and astonishingly, it is for me to report that both hotels were a shining example of exactly what a hotel should be to weary travellers. It is simply reassuring that not everyone appears to be on ‘the make’ because they will never be expecting you to use them again, so what the heck, let’s see what we can get away with? These two hotels demonstrated a service and quality that I would heartily recommend. Or was it that my past choices were so bad that normal service looks ten times better? I think not, these were definitely a rude awakening for others to sit up and take notice if they want to do better themselves.

So, what has that got to do with the sign industry? Actually, I will rephrase that and ask what exactly has my hotel experiences got to do with anything at all? Well, whether you like it or not, we are all influenced by outside experiences that we have no real control over. It shapes how we act or react in future circumstances. Seeing something done in a better way should, in theory, make us take a step back and examine if we ourselves could take on board what exactly it is that makes that experience such a good one and emulate the same principals.

Why is it then that when a sign company engages a third party to do a job for them, say for example an installation job, you are at their mercy and are sometimes left having to clear up any mess should it go pear shaped? Before you fire off a complaint about this viewpoint, I stress that this is not always the case but it is common enough to raise concerns.

Your customer, quite rightly, could not give a fig who actually does the work as they expect you to provide proficient professionals to do the job properly. You in turn expect third party contractors to represent your business in a way that your reputation you have fought so hard to gain with your client is not diminished or trashed. The client is paying you for a product and service so should it go wrong, you will be expected to sort it out and at your cost. But the damage has been done. Your client will see you as the incompetent supplier and no amount of passing the blame will work. You are now effectively on the lookout for a new customer.

In the not too distant past, I have been on a snagging meeting where the surveyor is peering through a pair of binoculars at the underside of some painted built-up letters positioned on the eighth floor outside the side of a building and complaining that the screw heads were not painted to match the colour of the letter—actually not painted at all. “You need to get your men back up there and paint them before I sign off this work.”

So, that is at least a £1,000 on extra man hours, a cherry picker, licences to operate in the street, health and safety barriers, plus a tin of paint, and a touch up brush. All because the subbies could not be bothered to finish the job properly in the first place.
 
Lesson learned, the subbies will not get paid next time until we get sign off, but why should we have to go through that in the first place?

Don’t sweat the small stuff

I have seen sign companies nurture with the greatest care and over a long period of time, their list of preferred subbies. These are treated like gold dust and even though everyone is always looking to reduce costs, this cadre of extremely good sub-contractors can demand and justify a higher rate and the sign company generally , although usually reluctantly, sees the value in that and pays accordingly.

Look, I get it, we work in an industry that is dynamic, every job is different, but still to the same crazy short lead times we allow ourselves to get dragged into. It can be like bang, bang, bang, and move on. I have said it before, no one wakes up on a Monday morning determined to ruin other people’s lives by deliberately making mistakes. But being in the industry we are in, it is inevitable that mistakes will from time to time occur, and it is the blatant ‘could not care less’ attitude that needs attention to. As Einstein once said, and I paraphrase, you cannot expect a different result if you continue to do exactly the same thing.

It is inevitable that mistakes will from time to time occur and it is the blatant ‘could not care less’ attitude that needs attention to”


In my own little bubble world, I do my best to worry about the things I can influence and control like deadlines and workload, and not sweat about the things I cannot control like traffic jams, late trains, or the price of a pint. But when it comes to work where I do not have any element of control i.e. if someone else has to do the delivery and execution of the work for me, I feel much safer in that someone if I have prior knowledge of how well they can do.

Is it gut feel? Credentials? Testimonials? Accreditation? Well actually it is a mixture of everything. But take the last one—accreditation.

If someone you trust gives someone their backing and it does not pan out, you at least have the comfort of having someone to go back to for complaint and sometimes restoration. The greater the misdemeanour or the regularity of poor work without any attempt of responding in a positive way, will lead to that accreditation being withdrawn and then that person/business can lose its lifeblood of credibility leading to loss of revenue. No change, no gain. That is life and that is how it should work.





Think of it this way, if you pay £30,000 for a car, you expect the service technician to know what he is doing i.e. is trained and qualified with an added desire not to mess things up for you. For him, if he wants to continue to be employed by the car dealer, then he needs to buy in to the whole ethos of that dealer’s hard earned reputation.

Same applies for your own employees, so why not sub-contractors?

Yet we seem to continue to put up with this situation and shrug our shoulders at shoddy service. In other words, we confine it to the bin of things we cannot control because it is easier to do so. I am of a mind to say ‘enough is enough’ but would it not be nice if sub-contractors had to belong to something that gave back some form of control and confidence in their abilities to deliver and act responsibly.

Of course, those sub-contractors who always deliver on time and without a complaint should realise it is not them that my soapbox is banging on about—and I will continue to heartily acknowledge their good work and support it as much as I can. Not everyone should be tarred with the same brush—but if we do not do something about indifferent workmanship and change things—we can simply expect the same-old-same-old and continue to wallow in our own little world, wondering why the number of our customers is on the decline while others seem to steam ahead.

If we do not do something about indifferent workmanship and change thing—we can simply expect the same old same old”


I am sure someone at those Parisienne hotels actually sat up and took enough notice to change things for the better, and boy did that work out well.



Public Notice:
  • We are all influenced by previous industry experiences
  • Third party contractors should represent your business well
  • Pay sub-contractors after the work is signed off to avoid wasting time
  • We need to do something about indifferent workmanship


The British Sign and Graphics Association (BSGA) history dates back more than 70 years when a group of leading sign-makers formed the Master Sign Makers Association (MSMA) with the aim of promoting the sign industry and defending its interests.

For more information on the issues discussed in this article visit www.bsga.co.uk or tel: 0845 338 3016

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