When a customer had trouble with material delivery delays because of unique scheduling demands, Olympic Steel Inc. decided to institute a more flexible on-demand shipping process to ensure its trucking fleet could always respond immediately to that customer’s delivery requests. The new process not only improved the customer’s efficiency and productivity, but ultimately, it improved its ability to better serve its own customers, as well.
It’s this kind of tailored problem-solving that has helped grow Olympic Steel into a top supplier of flat-rolled steel products. With 16 locations nationwide, the company drives customer loyalty by consistently demonstrating its ability to anticipate and address the problems of its customers, whether it’s helping them trim expenses, streamline operations or cut costs to propel growth.
Led by Chairman and CEO Michael Siegal, the company starts by listening to customers to find out how it can help them achieve their goals. In tough economic times, how receptive and responsive companies are to their customers’ changing needs and requirements plays an even more vital role in customer loyalty. Olympic’s leadership team constantly monitors industry fluctuations in price, availability and resources. By collecting and sharing that information with its customers, the company helps businesses adapt accordingly so they can remain competitive in planning and pricing.
Ensuring its customers stay educated and informed about new options for their businesses is just one way Olympic demonstrates its consistency of service. Building that consistency begins with a 90-day on-boarding and orientation process for all employees, where they are trained extensively in the application of Olympic’s core values and service culture. The service culture is strengthened further through Olympic’s performance management program, which uses a pay-per-performance rating structure to promote quality output. And to additionally motivate employees who exceed customer expectations consistently, the AP3X incentive program is used to reward ambassadors of the service culture with quarterly cash incentives.
How to reach: Olympic Steel Inc., (216) 292-3800 or www.olysteel.com
