The label from my tailored suit jacket
If you are a guy like me you probably have several shirts hanging up in your closet right now on thin plastic hangers that your wife bought some time ago on a trip to Wal-Mart. Maybe you are also like me and have the occasional need for a suit or sport coat. What kind of hanger do you have your suits hanging on? Do you have to run to your closet and check? Do you even care? Don’t worry I am right there with you. That is, I was until a few days ago. Then I came across this blog post which explained that without a properly shaped suit or sport coat hanger your suits and sport coats would over time buckle and ripple in the sleeves and the collar would stretch or flatten. In other words, a cheap, thin plastic hanger – over time – could permanently damage your suit or sport coats. Who knew?
After reading this I thought I better double check my closet. Thankfully, the sport jackets in my closet were on a proper wide wishbone hanger, but to my surprise my custom tailored suit was not. It was hanging on a thin plastic hanger and was clearly showing the signs of damage because of it. Cheap thin plastic hangers from Wal-Mart? Actually no. The suit has been hanging on the very hanger that it was delivered to me on by the tailor shop that made the suit.
When I was searching for a tailor to make me a suit I ended up selecting a well-known, established tailor with a proven track record (including the obligatory signed photos of famous patrons in their shop). Yet, here I was staring at my tailored suit sitting on a cheap, thin, plastic hanger with my tailors label on it. How could this be? How could they miss such a simple thing that could have such a huge impact in the life of their product? I can only guess that they did so to save money. Yet, what message is it sending to their customers? It told me that they really didn’t care about their work or for that matter their customers’ long-term satisfaction with their product. At the very least they could have told me about the need to switch out the hanger when I got home (maybe even a coupon code for a suit hanger from the Hanger Project).
What message are you sending your customers? Sometimes it’s the littlest details that your customers will notice about you and your products. It may seem insignificant to your bottom-line, but look at this tailor’s seemingly insignificant cost-cutting decision. The savings of a $15 hanger just cost them several hundred dollars in additional business and potentially more over the life of their relationship with me. Plus, they get the added bonus of never getting a referral from me. Doesn’t seem worth the savings of a $15 hanger does it?
Bottom line:
It takes more than just a great product and a great price to stay competitive in today’s marketplace. The details could mean the difference between having a mediocre business and a truly successful one.
