Meeting customer demands is a constant thought rolling through Dan Oliver’s mind.
The president and part-owner of Global Body & Equipment Co., a metal and plastic parts manufacturer, knows if his 45 employees have a customer communication breakdown it can be detrimental for the company and even his customers.
“It may be my customer’s customer is the guy that’s really being demanding,” Oliver says. “But if my customer can’t meet his customer’s demand, then we both lose.”
Good customer service involves solid communication, honesty and allowing employees to make decisions.
Smart Business spoke with Oliver about how to maintain customer satisfaction.
Q. What are the keys to understanding and meeting customer needs?
We go there. We go to the customer’s place. We try to understand their process. We see how they’re assembling the stuff, how they build it, how is it going to be used, mostly just trying to spend time with the customer to understand the real need.
I’m an old-fashioned guy; I go to my customers and (have) one-on-one-type interaction. That’s the only way I can really understand their business. You can’t do it electronically.
Whether it’s you go to visit them or have them come here so they understand what we do and how we do it. But just try to develop a partnership.
We really view our customers as a partnership because we become the manufacturing arm for that company in many cases.
Q. How often should you communicate with customers?
That depends on the size of the customer and the needs of the customer.
A lot of our interaction is driven by the fact that lead times today are so short people aren’t carrying inventory, especially in the last 18 months. With uncertainties, people aren’t holding a lot of inventory, so when they need something, they need it in a hurry. So we try to meet those demands, and in many cases, instead of three weeks lead time, they need it in 10 days.
(It’s asking,) ‘How can we do that? Or can I get you half of them? What do you really need to get out of trouble?’ In order to help them and meet those needs, you’ve just really got to communicate a lot with them.
