This week, I’ve been feeling so thankful to be surrounded by the circle of professionals who help Modern Metal behind the scenes. These people play a crucial role for us on a daily basis. We rely on many skilled people who don’t get a spot on our instagram, or get the spotlight of glamor shined on them, so this post is for them. From printers, to editors, to CAD drawers to shippers, we’ve developed a core group of people that we work with and who we trust. We are very selective, and we continue to hone in on this circle of excellence. In order for us to deliver our beautifully made product to you, we need to make sure we trust all sources involved. We only work with people we can count on, people who are professional, and people who are outstanding at what they do. Most importantly, we strive to work with people who care!
Today, Youssef, our CAD engineer brought the drawing pictured here to our attention. We didn’t ask him to analyze the pattern, but just to draft up a grille in a certain size using that pattern. Youssef pointed out that our pattern , Rattan Remix, has motifs which are a bit off center in the repeat. He pointed this out to our Project Manager, Jessica who pointed it out to me. I immediately said, “please thank Youssef profusely for me, and once we revise make this our new standard”. That little .07 fraction of an inch affects every single piece we make in that pattern! There are plenty of drafters out there who simply do what they are told, and deliver the task at hand. Youssef is a civil engineer by training, has an incredible work ethic and has saved our butts many times over by simply thinking, and suggesting. He truly cares. The fact that he went out of his way to bring this to our attention, caused him time and money. He had to pause what he was doing, ask us our opinion and wait due to the time difference between the US and Egypt where he resides. I am so grateful. Every detail does indeed matter to Youssef and he knows that every detail matters to us. His expertise and care are priceless to me.
This week we have an important shipment slated for pick up, getting shipped to a valued customer in New York. Priority One is a shipping service that Nichole, our Operations Manager, has started to use. In our Monday team meeting, she said “I want you to know how on top of it Priority One was with this package. They called us to let us know that they went to the pick up location and it was not ready for pick up, and felt we should know.“ This may sound basic, and almost does sound that way as I write this but it’s not. Most shipping companies would just go, not pick it up, maybe leave a sticky note, send a template email, and come back robotically the next business day. Priority One made the effort to call us and let us know person to person! We already knew of the situation with the package, but we are very impressed by Priority One. Jordan Jacobs is our representative there, and his response to Nichole is always “anytime”. He has been diligently helping us with this delivery for New York for the last two weeks. We are so grateful for the humanity behind this shipping company.
My website developer, Jordan Carpenter has a full time job, about to be a first-time father, and is there for us pretty much 24/7 on demand! He has done an amazing job developing our new site, and customizing it to our needs. Our product is niche and creating a website with logical flow and visual interest is a challenge. Jordan spent hours, I imagine far more than we payed for, really thinking through the pathways of the site with us, and helped us experience the vantage point of the user. For our color swatches, it was Jordan who suggested we show an actual photo of our metal in the color and not just the color in order to make it come to life, in order for the user to really get it. I didn’t have perfect professional shots of my metal in every color so was hesitant. He developed the page so that the clean photo colors are what one sees first, but then designed a click button to expand to my less formal shot of the metal in the actual color. Check it out! I think it’s a great feature. He also helped us with interactive buttons on the main page, encouraging another avenue to drive traffic to the corresponding pages. Jordan listened and worked through countless technological challenges with Jessica, our in house tech wizard and as a result I think they have developed a fabulous working relationship. There are so many examples, but I consider him more as a partner in the project rather than a web developer just performing skills. Jordan saved me just this morning, helping me navigate WordPress via text. Instant response!
These are just a few examples of some behind the scene stars that stood out to me this week. Jessica, Nichole and I are so grateful and could not run Modern Metal the way we do without them.
