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Building customer loyalty from adversityThe phone rang at 5:30 p.m. and a late-working engineer (Joe) answered it. The customer was mad. The plant was shut down because our product wasn't performing. Joe was sharp. He knew this customer and the product was his responsibility. He gathered facts, made a commitment to follow through, and called management. Before the night was over, a VP, quality manger, and Joe as the responsible engineer were booked for a flight to the customer's location hand-carrying enough product to restart the line. Additional product was scheduled for immediate air shipment. About 20 people from all levels of the customer's organization came out to the plant floor to meet our team and discuss the problem. They were amazed that we had responded so quickly and told stories of other suppliers who had stiff-armed them. The root cause analysis later found that the customer's specifications were incomplete. The problem was not our fault. We engaged a product team, made the changes to specifications and our process and offered to rework all existing product to their new specifications. The customer carried most of the cost and canceled a claim for downtime damages. The customer responded by giving us essentially all of their business. A new multi-million dollar order was placed within weeks. We made friends rather than enemies by responding proactively and positively.
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Cost Reduction & Profit Improvement
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