The concept of customer and supplier loyalty has been something I have not spent a lot of time thinking about in my career, but the recent economic boom in our industry has made me realize how much I rely on loyalty in my business every day. Loyalty allows our firm to rely on the steady hand of many craftsmen and a wonderful group of manufacturers that work hard to meet our project schedules.

Loyalty is a word we do not speak of often enough in business, but it has an effect on our success and profitability. Relationships are complex and often crucial in today's cutthroat business environment. Intense loyalty has become something I have learned to treasure and look for in the companies we work with daily, as well as something to develop in our clients.

Trust is like a living force that flows through our businesses. We can choose to do business with people who care and nurture our relationships - people we can rely on to service our clients and understand that our success is based on them being part of the solution. Once I have seen trust grow with a manufacturer or vendor, the bond between us grows and we both profit. I become intensely loyal to that manufacturer, and we repeatedly insist on using its products or services. We have suppliers all over the nation that I trust implicitly to do what they say they are going to do, and I am more often than not pleased by their wonderful performance.

In rare instances, we find a company that does not have such high intentions in our dealings together, and the dreaded red dot comes into play. In our design library, we have thousands of catalogs, and more than 15 years ago we decided to implement a simple system of putting a red dot on any catalog or product that has not performed well for us in the past.

The dot serves as a "buyer beware" sign to the design staff. If you want a hassle-free specification and do not want to suffer with delays, do not use any catalog with the red dot. Some products are so unusual and interesting that we may keep the catalog on the shelf, but with a huge warning flag to those project managers who tread into those companies' samples.

These red dots are not placed on catalogs where there was a small infraction. These are manufacturers that have out-and-out lied to us. They might have promised delivery dates repeatedly that never materialized, or have not taken care of major problems when they have occurred. Some have quoted an incorrect price and later raised it drastically after the order was placed and the time clock had run enough to leave us no other options.

Trust me, we are well aware that small problems occur and delivery dates can slip beyond a manufacturer's control. Instead, it is not just a concern that there is a problem; it is how the problem is dealt with. The problems are blessedly few and far between and so they become memorable.

But when we have trusted someone and find that they are not truthful and then disappear after the purchase order is received, we can have a long memory of being burned. On the other hand, if we have the proper notification of a problem, we find we can usually solve the problem together and everyone wins.

We all have horror stories in our business. We once had a manufacturer's representative swear some barstools for a hotel were heading to us on a truck and when a week passed without the delivery, I began to distrust the messenger. So I called the manufacturer directly and learned the barstools had not even made it to the shipping department. The very nice man in shipping told me he expected the barstools in the next week or so and he would get them shipped to me as soon as they were out of the finishing room!

The ensuing panic from this situation is still fresh in my memory, because we were preparing for a hotel opening and the owners were depending on us. This supplier was important to our firm's reputation for doing what we had promised. I would have preferred to hear the truth early so we could work together to figure out a solution, rather than being lied to and left to do detective work. We did make the hotel opening after an incredible expenditure of time and effort to work out a temporary solution until the original barstools arrived. In the end, we solved the problem alone with no help from the original supplier. It took five years before the red dot was taken off that company's catalog, and then only after a new representative was assigned to our territory.

More commonly, though, our business has stories of heroic suppliers working late to get out impossible orders with a speed we consider superhuman. It bothers me when people remember only to complain and do not let a company know when they truly are thankful for the loyal handling of a tough situation. I cannot tell you the times a vendor has saved us from our errors. They have noticed wrong fabric quantities or other mistakes on our purchase orders that have saved the day and many dollars.

All successful businesses have loyal clients that provide repeat customers as the core of their business. Our firm has clients that we rely on for their steady stream of projects, and we have architectural firms that insist on our being part of their projects. But I must also admit that we have blown it before with our clients, and have become irritable with a past supplier. We all drop the ball from time to time, but the point is going forward into the next project having learned something and become smarter.

Unethical designers are out there and we all pay for their errors. Not all designers do what they promise; they have left manufacturers hanging with false expectations and unpaid invoices. This business is a two-way street, and we know loyalty and truthfulness have to run both ways. The ride can get bumpy on any project, but having a company stand with you during the bumps and help you find solutions is what loyalty is all about.

Juliana M. Catlin, FASID, is founder and president of Catlin Interiors Inc. For more information, call 904-396-5522.