Have you ever called Datacolor with questions about your retail paint solutions? If so, you have most likely spoken to one of our Application Specialists, Christine Deane. To many of you, she is already considered the Rockstar of your paint department.
Because of her dauntless spirit in the face of any and all issues, we took the time to sit down with our retail paint ‘Wonder Woman’ to learn a bit more about her, as well as get some advice on improving the operations of any paint department.
Location: The “Live Free” state of New Hampshire
Favorite colors: Red and deep purple
Favorite activity: Driving her Mustang along the winding roads. “I am a happy girl if you give me a car, a tank of gas, and a backpack; I could be gone for a week in the woods”
Community service: A veteran of the Girl Scouts for 35 years, both as a leader and a community developer for the organization
Fun fact: Christine’s daughter appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” when she was nominated for the prestigious “Teacher of the Year” award, as one of the most hardworking and caring teachers in the state. Check out the full video interview here: http://www.metatube.com/en/videos/239255/Ellen-Amanda-Eatons-Inspiring-Story/
Christine @ Datacolor
There is an adage that states, “To figure out your purpose, you must first figure out your passion.” For Christine, helping people has always been just that – her passion. She has taken that passion and transformed it into her purpose at Datacolor. For her, helping retail paint stores has never been more enjoyable or rewarding.
“I have always wanted to be in the business of helping customers,” she stated, “That is my passion. I grew up being a volunteer. I can remember at a young age I would collect nickels and dimes going door-to-door for the Heart Fund. I was raised to give back.” At Datacolor she has found the perfect spot, as her current role helping our retail paint customers allows her to merge her love of assisting others into her career. Christine takes pride in aiding paint departments by bringing their system online, or helping them understand some neat features of their PAINT software.
We asked Christine for a success story in helping a customer. “There was this wonderful lady from Nevada, who was handed a paint system she didn’t know how to operate. She called me in desperation. So I walked her through the installation, and trained her so she was comfortable to teach her employees how to use the system. And now she is the Rockstar at the store and the head of the paint department! She went from someone who didn’t know how to turn on a computer, to a master of our software who was able to use it to make her and her team’s job easier. This kind of amazing reward is why I love my job.”
Christine’s tips for paint stores:
We asked Christine to share a few suggestions from her many years of supporting retail paint stores. Here are her top 5 tips to make your paint department more successful:
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- Always ask questions about the samples customers provide. Such as, how long have they had the sample? Has it been sitting in the sun, thus altering the color? Also, make sure the sample is clean and opaque, to ensure the spectrophotometer measures accurately.
- Clean your dispenser frequently. “If your dispenser is not clean, it doesn’t matter how good your matching is. At the end of the day, it is the dispenser that is shooting the color out.”
- Keep your spectrophotometer clean. “If you have paint on the outside of your spectro there is going to be paint on the inside. You may not see it, but as the paint dries the paint dust will fly in and affect your measurement quality.”
- Understand your customer’s needs. What the customer is planning to do with the paint can impact the quality and type of paint needed. Ask questions like, where are you planning to paint? What are you using the paint for?
- Always keep your customers’ files. Your customer files help build your customer base as well as your brand. This also improves overall efficiency – by doing so, you can immediately retrieve all information for repeat customers!
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