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H&N photo by Steven Silton http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/local_news/business/article_0ebb6df6-231a-11e3-9730-001a4bcf887a.html Helping customers with disabilities Jim Dillon, manager at Sherm’s Thunderbird, and 14-year employee Kelly Johnson are known for their customer service and willingness to help anyone that comes through the door. Buy this photo ADA requirements To learn more about the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements for small businesses, visit the website www.ada.gov or read the guide at http://www.ada.gov/smbusgd.pdf. Accept payments the way your customers demand. By NORA AVERY-PAGE H&N Staff Reporter | 0 comments The first time a customer asked for a little bit of extra light to help create their pottery masterpiece, Next of Kiln owner Christa Mann found a way to make it happen. The paint-your-own-pottery store in downtown Klamath Falls now keeps desk lamps on hand to help customers with vision problems, and goes above and beyond to help people with other disabilities, too. “It’s just any way we can help,” Mann said of the unofficial store policy. “We try to solve that problem for them. It varies person to person.” If customers say they are having difficulty with something, Mann makes an effort to help them find a solution. For example, if a customer has problems with their fine motor skills, Mann will help them paint the small details on their projects, or find a way to help them grip the paintbrushes better. The store has pencil grips and yarn balls at the ready, which customers can stick their paintbrushes through to get a better hold while working. While the supplies are small and inexpensive for Mann to have available, it makes a big difference for customers who need it. “We make do with whatever we can that can help,” Mann said. Above ADA While businesses are required through the American with Disabilities Act to make reasonable accommodations for customers with disabilities, such as providing accessible parking, room to maneuver a wheel chair within aisles, and briefing employees about being willing to find different ways communicate with customers with speech or hearing problems, some local businesses go above and beyond those basic requirements. Jim Dillon, the store manager at Sherm’s Thunderbird, said that his employee interactions with disabled customers is just an extension of their customer service. “We definitely try to extend our customer service to anybody,” Dillon said. “Morally, we feel it’s the thing to do.” It’s a policy that’s good for business, Dillon said: of course, the store wants those people as customers, and employees do anything they can to make sure a disabled customer gets what they need. The store has driving carts that they offer to mobility-challenged customers, employees will ask if someone needs help reaching an item on a higher shelf, and will help bag groceries and offer people help to their cars, Dillon said. And that kind of service is extended not only to disabled customers, but to anyone, like a mother carrying a sleeping child, for example, he added. The kindness and assistance the store employees show towards disabled customers comes from having a great staff and leading by example, Dillon said. “It just kind of feeds on itself,” he said. “It’s just something that you should do.” Lead by example One reason that Sherm’s has a good reputation with disabled customers is because of Dillon’s employee Kelly Johnson, he said. “She’s the one that leads by example,” he said. Customers will come in and ask for her by name to help them shop, Johnson said, adding that she helps one woman in a wheelchair do her grocery shopping regularly. “They always tell me that I made their day,” Johnson said of her loyal customers. Johnson said that she herself has been through a lot in life, including a near-death experience and harrowing surgery eight years ago. She was also born cross-eyed and bullied in school because of it. “I think that being nice, to me, is a strength,” Johnson said. “People are very important to me. I believe in treating people the way you want to be treated.” naverypage@heraldandnews.com