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Not A Head Scratcher
A weird thing happened this week. We booked a pickup with FedEx on Monday and they never showed. Apparently the shipper did not let the front office know that it was still sitting there in the morning, and there it sat. Dale has been known to be clairvoyant, but she was a bit off that day. The customer called on Wednesday and was quite upset that it was still sitting there ... understandably so.
It is a head scratcher when our systems break down on top of each other. The FedEx problem should have caused a one-day delay ... max !!! But dealing with it is not a head scratcher. We called FedEx several times to make sure the pickup was made and let the customer know just after it happened. Customer Service response makes all the difference and a little communication goes a long way.
We have a distributor who also manufactures another type of heater. Their manufacturing arm operates as a separate company and as an independent supplier to the distribution company. Every year they had a survey to rate their suppliers and, every year, we came in second to their own manufacturing company. Then, one year, we came in first !!! I was pretty surprised at their objectivity and lack of bias, but not by the fact that we won.
We have a customer in the Far East who gives us a big contract and buys one heater that we don't make. I am continually amazed at the poor communication from our heater vendor ... a reasonably high quality supplier, but their customer service is sorely lacking. That one extra phone call to let a customer know that an order will be a day or two late (seldom necessary from Dalton Electric, as you know) goes so
far. Communication to you and your company and a call from you to your customer makes all the difference.
Friday Funnies
Engineer's Terms and Expressions (What they say versus what they mean)
- A number of different approaches are being tried. (We are still guessing at this point.)
- Close project coordination. (We sat down and had coffee together.)
- An extensive report is being prepared on a fresh approach. (We just hired three punk kids out of school.)
- Major technological breakthrough! (It works OK; but looks very hi-tech!)
- Customer satisfaction is believed assured. (We are so far behind schedule, that the customer will take anything.)
- Preliminary operational tests were inconclusive. (The darn thing blew up when we threw the switch.)
- Test results were extremely gratifying! (Unbelievable, it actually worked!)
- The entire concept will have to be abandoned. (The only guy who understood the thing quit.)
- It is in process. (It is so wrapped in red tape that the situation is completely hopeless.)
- We will look into it. (Forget it! We have enough problems already.)
- Please note and initial. (Let's spread the responsibility for this.)
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