One of our principles is “Delight Our Customers,” and we just had another opportunity to practice it. Our customer makes large batteries, and we make chargers for the batteries. Our customer called at 5 PM on a Friday and said they had a problem crimping a huge terminal on a large cable for a new battery they needed to ship “immediately”! Their batteries are not our problem, and it was practically the weekend when they called, but it sure was an opportunity to Delight!
They shipped us the materials they had. Monday morning, we received them and then, rapid-fire, created a new assembly in our process; received and issued the parts; created drawings, a routing, and a bill-of-material; created the quote and got the PO, and other necessary paperwork completed; built the cables; and shipped them overnight for early Tuesday delivery.
This was a small thing in the grand scheme of business, but it met the customer’s immediate need in a way they won’t soon forget. Oh, and by the way, we sent them specs on the hydraulic crimper they would need to do this for themselves in the future.
Opportunities to “Delight Your Customer” present themselves more often than you think. You just need to pay attention to react at the right time.
