After 20 years of teaching the art of canvas-making and fabricating canvas for our customers, I have become a whistleblower on myself. Seeking humility requires a true confession, after all.

Even the best shops fall short

You may think a well-respected, experienced canvas shop like ours never needs to redo something we’ve made—but you would be wrong. Just this past year, our less experienced staff members were set loose to fabricate a mooring cover project. I thought the project would be simple enough for them to tackle. However, the fabric passed “through the pipes” of a T-top—a bit challenging for new staff members.

When the customer picked up the boat and drove away, I said, “He’ll be calling us soon.” It was actually five months before the customer finally stopped into the shop with just one complaint. He said, “I cannot put this thing on my boat because it is so ridiculously tight.” I smiled and replied, “I knew you’d say that, and that is why I ordered 40 more yards of fabric a few months back. We will be more than happy to do the job over at no charge.” His face lit up with a big smile, and we remade the cover immediately. Not only did we make a new cover, but we also made another customer loyal to us for years to come.

How those stupid buckles work

There’s nothing more embarrassing than trying to show a customer or employee how to put the webbing through a snap buckle and have it take five attempts to get it right. Sometimes the simplest things can evade us. We have since made mock-up windows, vents, bungees, winch covers, cleat openings and, of course, snap buckles complete with adjusters. These tricky items hang on the wall so that any of our people can access them. We even make templates of common things so we don’t have to reinvent them each time.

The boss doesn’t know everything

While this isn’t exactly earth-shattering news, will the boss admit it? I recently had a new employee working on a project that required a 1-inch hem. She drew a line on the fabric at 2 inches. I quickly took the opportunity to correct her by saying, “Your fold-on line should be drawn at 1 inch, not 2 inches.” With that, she said in a soft, yet determined voice, “It’s not a fold-on line, it’s a fold-to line, which is easier to see and more accurate for me.” She was perfectly correct.

As I pondered it, I found it strange that I had not thought of that a decade or two sooner. I no longer teach a fold-on method but rather, a fold-to method. When my employees come up with better ideas, I praise their insight and encourage them to always look for better ways to accomplish the task. In doing so, we have experienced better results over the years.

Five things true of canvas customers

• When customers begin with “It would be an easy project. All you have to do is …,” it means they don’t want to pay much money to get the work done. They’ve likely been to every other shop in town and know exactly what it should cost. They are trying to convince you that the job would be easy and take no time at all to do the work. I thought about getting staff T-shirts with “It’s easy, all ya gotta do is …” on them.
• If customers say the old window panel needing a glass replacement fits perfectly now, it doesn’t! Look for sculpting along the snap edge.
• If customers say their old carpet fits perfectly now and we can use it as a pattern for the new carpet, do not do it! We’ve been bitten by that a few times. Go pattern the floor. It will save you thousands of dollars in rework.
• When customers’ jobs are finished and they keep adding things to the project, it usually means they don’t have all of the money yet to pay the bill. They are stalling by adding small items to their projects.
• When customers say, “I just had this made two years ago,” they are speaking in Boat Years, as recollection gets fuzzy when you are a boater. Boat Years are always half the actual number of years in the real world.

Bosses and instructors are human

My students and employees love it when I make a mistake. If instructors say, “For instructional purposes only, I have intentionally done this incorrectly,” they are probably covering up a mistake they made. On the rare occasion (ha-ha) that I mess up, I laugh and acknowledge my mistake in real time. After the echo of laughter dissipates, I’ll show students how to fix the mistake. They say to me, “I’m glad that you messed up because you’ve taught us how to fix it and we need to know that too!” Don’t let your ego get in your way. Everyone knows when you’ve messed up, so you may as well turn it into a great learning experience.

I hope you had a chuckle as you read this article. Sometimes it’s good to take a lighter view of our challenging industry. 

Russ Griffin is co-owner of Northcoast Marine Specialties LLC, which operates a training facility in the art of canvas making in Port Clinton, Ohio.