ABOUT OUR CUSTOMER PROJECTS:
Customer projects make up a significant percentage of the products that we make at Birds in the Wood. We love bringing someone’s idea into reality and welcome the chance to do so. Of course, taking on a project means that the target result is one that both matches our genre and capabilities and meets the expectations of the customer. We view a customer project as having four very distinct and specific steps.
Bring the idea
The first and most important step in our process happens when an idea is brought to our attention. While this can happen in any number of ways, it usually starts with a phone call, email or text that we receive from an existing or prospective customer. From this starting point, we work with our customer to determine if their objective and our capabilities are a good match.
Conceptual drawing
A good match being the case, we advance to the next step which involves getting a picture of the end product on paper. We often do this by producing a pencil sketch concept drawing. We know that this approach is a bit old school as programs like Google Sketchup can be used to produce cleaner and more precise results. On the other hand, we feel that producing a manual concept drawing involves stronger focus on the end product and, in our experience, leads to a good result. At this point, we are not looking for precision. We are looking for consensus that we are on track with the original idea.
Success Criteria
After we have reached a common understanding for the target result with our customer, we then generally open discussion regarding success factors both from the customer view and from our own. Criteria can be anything. Some examples would be: need by date, size and dimension, cost, payment schedules, color, size, use of specific materials and delivery expectations. These acceptance criteria are given careful attention as we get ready to begin the work of making the product.
Create the Result
The last step of the process is then to make the product for which we now have idea, concept consensus and agreement for the acceptance criteria. Aside from the work of building the target result, we typically provide periodic reports to our customer advising them of progress we are making. We also invite customers to stop by our shop to view the progress we are making.
When it is all done, our biggest reward for the effort comes with the smile on our customer’s face as they see their product in its finished state.
DO YOU HAVE AN IDEA YOU WANT TO SEE PRODUCED?
If so, please give is a call or complete the interest form below. We will then schedule a session specifically for the purpose of understanding exactly what it is you have in mind. We can then better describe how we might go about making your dream a reality. Why not get things started today?
