We tend to not only ignore certain people’s opinions, we tend to “look right through” many people that we pass as we live our lives. For example, how much do you remember about the person that checked your groceries at the grocery store? They are there, but not on your radar as someone who matters as long as your cookies don’t get smashed. But as a person who checked groceries for a few months early in my life, I can assure you, that grocery checker most likely has an opinion about you.

I was amazed at the things I could tell about people as I checked their groceries. I knew if they loved their pets, if they lived alone, if they were local or from far away, and a whole array of vices would sometimes be sitting right there in the grocery cart as well. If I could determine so much by looking at groceries, I wonder about the mailman, or the bank teller....now there’s a couple of people who know more about you than you might want strangers to.

It seems as though some people in our lives take on the characteristic of “wallpaper,” always there, always performing their function and then fading into the background. They are the kind of people we can take for granted as we concentrate on ourselves and what’s important to us.

As I think about my time as a grocery checker at the grocery store, I know I became an expert of sorts. If someone had asked me for example, “Who most likely is the best cook in town?” I could make an excellent recommendation based on what I saw going out of the store in grocery bags. Nobody ever asked me that question so the best cook in town remains anonymous even to herself.

Now what does this have to do with our industry? If you think about all the background people in the window coverings industry, it has a lot to do with it. Here’s why. As a grocery checker, I formed an opinion of my customers, but other than squishing their bread, I didn’t have a lot of influence on their lives. But in our industry, there’s a lot more at stake than squished bread. And believe me when I say, as a designer/decorator, your workroom and suppliers have an opinion about you.

You may be thinking that their opinion of you centers around your skill at picking fabrics....or your wonderful designs. But as a workroom with multiple decorator/designer clients, I can speak from experience, those fabrics and designs are for the most part all beautiful and we tend to become immune to them after awhile.

So, what do the people you take for granted consider important in their ratings of designers? Mostly, it’s business issues. Do you write a clear work order? Do you possess skills in measuring and figuring jobs? Do you prepare your customer for setbacks such as backorders, delays etc.? Do you manage your finances so you can pay on time? Do you own your own mistakes or do you try to blame others? Can you be easily located for clarifications?

If you haven’t given some thought to how your subcontractors and suppliers feel about you, it might be a good time to do so. Because unlike your grocery checker, or mailman, people who help you in the background of your business DO have a tremendous impact. Your business skills directly affect the pricing you receive, the service you receive, and believe it or not, the favors you receive.

So during your next conversation with your vendor or your workroom, remember to think of them not as wallpaper but a piece of beautifully illustrated artwork, a treasured possession worth keeping!

²²This article was written by Mary Ann Plumlee of Plumlee Place in Waco, TX. Mary Ann is also an instructor at The Custom Home Furnishing Trade School.