To Tweet or Not to Tweet / A Tale of Two Thoughts
I called a life long friend of mine recently because we haven’t communicated in the longest time; no calls, no emails, no visits, no Facebook quips – both of us were guilty. And although it made perfect sense after he said it, the truth is we haven’t talked much because there wasn’t a particular need to fill in the blanks of each other’s lives. Between the social networking updates and each of our wives keeping each of our family’s blog sites updated, there wasn’t much to say at all. I knew exactly what he had been doing the week before and what he had for dinner the night before last, and he knew exactly what I was thinking earlier that day and how much my son was enjoying his new bike; and all of this without a single conversation – not one direct word between us. It scared me. It spooked me, and it’s not even Halloween!
And with an uncanny stroke of eeriness a day later, I had the exact same experience during a CSI webinar for the Product Representation Practice Group. The main hot topic of discussion was how to evolve manufacturers’ websites to the design professionals’ needs. And I didn’t say it, but I was thinking it the whole time: why? If you were to ask me to support switching over (100%) to electronic design manuals in architectural libraries, for electronic submittals in lieu of antiquated, file-hogging hard copies, and doing take-offs completely online, I would be first in line; heck, I would camp out two nights before just to be the first in line. But that’s not the answer. That is to say, this switch will never be done effectively 100%, and it will never be perfect or even close to perfect.
Design professionals need the human touch. They need that product representative – not just to puke out product information or pass along a three part CSI formatted specification for any given product, but to give their assessment for any given project in the construction process. Notice: I didn’t say “sales” representative. If you want a sales representative, go to Lowe’s. Because believe it or not, most of your “product” representatives know more about their product line(s) than you will ever want to know. If you want a project to be a success, don’t turn away any product representative that shows up at your office. You will never find anyone more in touch with the human condition than a person that wants to talk to you, face to face.
In my opinion, there are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. This is my blog, and it doesn’t make me right. But it doesn’t make me wrong . . .
And with an uncanny stroke of eeriness a day later, I had the exact same experience during a CSI webinar for the Product Representation Practice Group. The main hot topic of discussion was how to evolve manufacturers’ websites to the design professionals’ needs. And I didn’t say it, but I was thinking it the whole time: why? If you were to ask me to support switching over (100%) to electronic design manuals in architectural libraries, for electronic submittals in lieu of antiquated, file-hogging hard copies, and doing take-offs completely online, I would be first in line; heck, I would camp out two nights before just to be the first in line. But that’s not the answer. That is to say, this switch will never be done effectively 100%, and it will never be perfect or even close to perfect.
Design professionals need the human touch. They need that product representative – not just to puke out product information or pass along a three part CSI formatted specification for any given product, but to give their assessment for any given project in the construction process. Notice: I didn’t say “sales” representative. If you want a sales representative, go to Lowe’s. Because believe it or not, most of your “product” representatives know more about their product line(s) than you will ever want to know. If you want a project to be a success, don’t turn away any product representative that shows up at your office. You will never find anyone more in touch with the human condition than a person that wants to talk to you, face to face.
In my opinion, there are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. This is my blog, and it doesn’t make me right. But it doesn’t make me wrong . . .
Posted by Stirling Morris CSI CDT at 10/19/2009 6:28 PM 
Categories: Product Representation
Tags: Professional Development
Categories: Product Representation
Tags: Professional Development
So I am working on the project at 8:00 PM at night or say on Saturday and I need some project information to complete what I am doing. If I am dumb enough to call the product representative at those times, what will I get - an answering machine of course. I need the information immediately to meet my deadline - the answer is to go to the manufacturer's website. Sure would be nice if I could find the desired information easily. Not too many manufacturer websites make it easy. Sure would be nice if more of them were easier to use - I think that is what they are there for - to provide information to their potential customers.
Campaigning for better manufacturer websites, is not a campaign against product representatives. It is just trying to improve another source of product information.
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Hey, Bob!
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If you are a spec consultant working on multiple projects for multiple architects, you usually do not have control of the schedules. You work the hours you have to work to get the work accomplished if you want to continue to do work for them. In a large office, that can be just as true for a dedicated in-house specifier. Sure, we would all like to do our work 8-5, M-F, but that is not always the reality.
In terms of how easy many manufacturer's websites are to use to find product information, there are many users of the sites out there that disagree with you. Here are links to a couple of discussions on the subject from a few years ago to give you an idea - one from a negative point a view and the other from a positive point of view: http://discus.4specs.com/discus/messages/24/2802.html;
http://discus.4specs.com/discus/messages/23/3076.html. A more recent discussion is found on the LinkedIn CSI site: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=706547&discussionID=7219288&goback=%2Eanh_706547.
I agree on site registration being riduculous - I will not use such sites unless absolutely necessary. But I also find myself spending a lot of wasted time on some other sites searching for basic product information because the information is not well organized and not easily found. It can be very frustrating. Others in the above discussions obviously have shared my frustrating experiences.
Colin Gilby of 4Specs realized the problem back about 2000 in terms of his dealing with many manufacturers and their websites on his site. He came up with WebFormat to try to raise the level of manufacturer websites. He tried to give it to CSI, but it was rejected. He then gave it to CSRF. You can see it at http://www.csrf.org/html/webform.html.
This is one effort to attack the problem - probably needs improvements. Hopefully we will have some continued more extensive efforts by CSI and CSRF to improve the situation.
Stirling - Let me again say that trying to improve manufacturer's websites is NOT an attack on product representatives. I am total agreement with you that product reps (not sales people) are an important and great source of needed product information - I do not know of any specifiers or technically oriented architects who would advocate reducing their role.
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It's interesting to think about the manufacturer's web site as part of the manufacturer's relationship with the design professional, just as your relationship with your friend is augmented by your online communications. Really, that's an insight more manufacturers should consider.
As a design professional, I appreciate manufacturers who respect my time enough to offer me information I can apply, without calling, for basic uses of their products. I shouldn't have to call anyone to find a California-compliant paint system for drywall, for instance. The manufacturer that shares basic information with me freely has started a relationship with me, as my trusted advisor. Who, then, will I call when I have a challenging project? One of my trusted advisors.
Now, shame on me, or on my project team, if I have a challenging problem that requires a high-performance solution and I haven't called anyone by the Saturday before the project is due. But, shame on the manufacturer if, on that Saturday, I can't get product literature that supports the product's compliance with my requirements. The trust should go both ways: manufacturers need to trust specifiers with the technical information needed to confirm a decision, just as specifiers need to trust manufacturers to provide complete, accurate information.
As for product representatives, they are and always will be essential to the relationship. They are, after all, the only way most of us experience a human face and a handshake with a manufacturer. Companies that support their representatives with good, current specifying information are companies that enhance their representatives' "trusted advisor" role. If some of that information is only available through representatives, so be it. Think hard, manufacturers, on what information is "premium" information.
I have been in the position many times of having to specify products with poor, uninformative web sites. It's not yet the case that we can simply not use products that aren't well-supported on the web, and it may never be. More and more I've heard people say that they won't use a product if they can't get online information. I hear their frustration and have felt it myself. But it doesn't always serve the client's needs to judge a product's performance by its web site's performance. A good representative can trump a bad web site.
I don't think a good web site can trump a bad (or absent, or overtaxed) representative, though. A good web site can inspire confidence, deliver valuable information, and help me find my rep. But if I have a problem that the company can't resolve with feet and eyes in my office or on the project site, I'm going to hesitate to use the product again.
Thanks, Stirling, for the thought-provoking story.
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