“…we’ll be able to print out the e-mail and attach it to his invoice to remind him of that fact!” I finished.
Mr. Bradley was less than organized and had a bad habit of losing notes and forgetting things. Countless hours were wasted every month reviewing his statement. We’d have to fax him confirmations he’d signed off on to remind him of agreed-upon specifications and pricing. There would be endless phone conversations and more faxes about lumber pricing he’d agreed to.
E-mail would be our salvation. We were even thinking about outfitting our sales staff with PDAs.
Initially, Bradley Construction’s use of the technology went smoothly. Every order they placed came via e-mail, so we had written confirmation of each request. Mr. Bradley’s accountant would e-mail requests for paperwork to our bookkeeper when there were billing questions. His secretary was even using e-mail to set up our lunch appointments.
Then one day a few e-mails we sent Mr. Bradley regarding a millwork package went unanswered. We sent the questions to the supervisors who dutifully forwarded them to their boss. Still no answer.
Finally Pete had to resort to—gasp—the cell phone. Sure enough, he had to leave a voicemail, which Mr. Bradley responded to.
“Did you get our e-mails?” Pete asked.
“Oh,” Mr. Bradley began sheepishly. “I dropped my PDA off the roof of a house we’re building. Fell right into a cement mixer.”
So much for the technological revolution.
With expanding wireless communications and easy-to-use handheld software, yard-to-jobsite communication is getting easier and more organized than ever. But no matter how advanced it gets, you should never put all your eggs in one basket.
