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Welcome to our annual Design Issue! This issue is a favorite. After all, we all know how stationery functions, but its form is what keeps it exciting

However, I learned something during this issue’s production: Even if you have the world’s most fabulous product, if you don’t put your customers first, you risk completely alienating them. This is especially the case with “too big to fail” retailers — and it may give smaller venues a huge edge.

Here’s a case in point. For my daughter’s birthday, she received, via delivery, a backpack from a major children’s retailer. There’s no way you aren’t familiar with them. Purveyors of furniture, accessories, and linens, once you’ve bought something there, their catalogs, rife with apple-cheeked children, hit your mailbox monthly.

At any rate, my daughter prefers her existing backpack, so we went to our local store. She found something she liked, but although the store took the product back, they wouldn’t allow us to exchange it. Since the gift was purchased through the catalog, we’d receive a gift card in the mail.

The salesperson had circled the amount of the gift card, but when it arrived, the numbers didn’t match. So I called, and was told we had been charged a restocking fee. “Wait a minute,” I said. “That is not the amount on the receipt. You can’t do that.”

The representative eventually agreed to send me another gift card to compensate. But weeks went by and it never arrived. So I called again and was told the gift card was sent to the person who gave us the gift, putting me in an awkward position, as I felt obligated to let them know why they received it. Meanwhile, during my next two calls, I was told a manager would call me back, which never happened.

The more I thought about the situation, the more irritated I felt. My daughter had slept on their bedding as an infant, and these days she studies at their desk, carries their backpack and eats lunch from their lunchbox. I’d also bought countless gifts from them — and moreso, who knows how many small retailers they put out of business, only to treat their customers like this?

Finally, on my fifth call, I found a sympathetic ear. I relayed the situation, and the representative asked me, “What can I do to make the situation right?”

I hadn’t even though about that. “We don’t want to lose you, “ she continued, “so I’ll send you a $50 gift card. Would that be adequate?”

It was, and I’m happy to report that my story has a happy ending. My daughter got what she originally wanted, plus another gift as well.

But my experience begs the question: Are your policies designed to protect you — or benefit your client? If the answer is not the latter, then they need to be examined — along with the latest trends, of course!

Until next issue,