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I read somewhere recently that "When you're through changing, you're through." It's an important concept to remember as we move through today's competitive market.
An important change we've made here at Draperies & Window Coverings is welcoming back Carolyn Silberman to our team as associate publisher. Carolyn was with D&WC for four years, and then joined Meredith Publishing Co. where she gained considerable experience working with Better Homes & Gardens publications. Most recently she was Midwest Territory manager for Comfortex Window Fashions. A long-time veteran of the window coverings industry, we know Carolyn's dynamic enthusiam and astute industry insight will help us grow and deliver the innovative programs sure to maximize results for our customers!
Developing programs designed to "delight" customers was an essential principle to the overview of total quality management (TQM) offered by William Hensler, director of the TQM Center of Excellence, Coopers & Lybrand, at the Window Coverings Association of America (WCAA) annual breakfast symposium. Held during The World of Home Fashion fair in March in Indianapolis, IN, the presentation proved to be a real eye-opener . . . even at eight o'clock in the morning.
Hensler emphasized learning the value of customer delight--the process by which a company provides incredible service that its customers don't ask for or expect--and that earns the company long-standing loyalty and repeat business. Delivering customer delight helps ensure a company's move ahead of its competition. Hensler cited the need to use all possible "listening posts" to gather ideas for developing your own customer delight programs, especially the ideas that come from within your own organization. He cited as an example Milliken, which receives nearly three-quarters of a million ideas from its employees in a single year.
Hensler's TQM presentation was a fitting follow-up to the WCAA awards ceremony in which Karla Nielson received the WCAA Industry Achievement Award she so thoroughly deserved. Karla has been delighting our magazine's readers and Interior Fashion University seminar attendees for many years. We're proud to have such an outstanding professional on our team and congratulate her on many, many jobs well done!
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