whistling through a graveyard

Have you ever walked through a graveyard and you were the only one there? I felt like that Friday as I was walking across the manufacturing floor where I work. The people on the shop floor are trying to get their vacation time used up before the place is shut down, and so, on a spring-like Friday, people were taking the day off. I couldn’t help thinking that in a few months, the place will be void of people every day of the week, and that got me thinking some more.

There was a sign over the copy machine the last place I worked that said something like:

If you don’t think your customer is most important, think again!

There was a sign above the urinal saying something like:

If you’re not thinking about pleasing your customer right now, you can be sure your competitor is

The only sign above the urinal where I work now is:

Wash hands before returning to work

The truth of the matter is that I have never worked anywhere that didn’t have signs all over the place reminding everyone how important the customer was, with the exception of the place where I am currently working.

“Ah,” many of you are probably thinking right now, “No wonder they are shutting the place down.”

While your conclusion might seem to be valid from the point of view of signage, I will respectfully contradict your thought. We don’t need signs all over the place to remind us, because we are the single-mindedly most customer-focused organization I think I have ever witnessed. If our customer orders something this morning that we agree to stock for him, the order ships today. If he orders something special that has to be made from scratch, it’ll probably ship today, but it will ship tomorrow, for sure, if not. If he wants something just a little longer or shorter than his specification, we’ll change the specification and ship right away. We’ll bend over backward and spare no expense to get our customers exactly what they want by tomorrow at the latest, even if they haven’t imagined what it is, yet, and it has never been designed or made before. And, we’ll do it for a rock-bottom price.

Your first reaction to that statement is probably wonder as to why a company so customer-focused is shutting down. Your second reaction is probably complete awe about how totally customer-conscious they must be at the facility to where our jobs are being sent.

My response to your first reaction is that we are shutting down because we are so customer-focused. And my response to your second reaction is that, no, they are going to turn down many of those orders we have accepted routinely and they are not going to lose money meeting almost impossible deadlines and working overtime selling low margin, low profit orders. They are not going to be customer-focused and they are going to continue to be successful.

The truth be told, if one provides the customer with exactly what the customer wants at the price the customer wants to pay, it will be at a price level that won’t allow any profit. Customers always want to pay the lowest possible price for something. I’m a customer and I want the lowest price I can get. I would venture to say that you, too, prefer to pay a bargain price.

“So, Jimbo,” most of you are asking right now, “Is this is the point in this story when you tell us your solution on how to fix the problem? Is this the time when you tell us how we can make everything better? What is your grand idea to solve this dilemma?”

I dunno.

It’s the law of supply and demand and it is not going to be repealed soon. That is, unless you are big oil and you have your guy in the white house and you know you can have your customer bend over his car on a regular basis and violate him with the nozzle of the gas pump. Perhaps we should exhibit a modicum of intelligence and make sure that next time we have the chance to step into the voting booth, we vote the rascals out.

As for the rest of us in our everyday lives, we just have to do the best we can. Make your customer happy, but do it without giving away the store.

We don’t have the answer, but we’re working on it. Our recommendation is that next time you walk alone through a graveyard, try whistling. Maybe it will scare away whatever is out there waiting for you.

At least, we think it’s worth a try, here in Jimbo’s world.