Any manufacturing operation knows, it’s not going to go 100% to plan. You’re going to hit a roadblock. You’re going to have a quality concern or a delivery concern that has to be overcome. An aluminum extruder was subcontracting the machining and they got the prototypes and sent them to me and I was kind of shocked at the quality of the machining that was done. We have used smaller shops for different stuff. Their promises were never met. Aluminum parts that we would get from the manufacturer, aluminum parts that would run on belts at high speed but those belts would eat up those aluminum parts.
The most important thing for us when it comes to taking care of our customers is to make things easy for them. That’s one thing every customer wants, is they want their job to be easier. And if we can be the ones to do that and we understand that better than anybody else, then our chances of keeping that customer are so much greater.
Honestly there were days when I would call it Advance CNC and say the next batch of pre-machined components, I have to pick those up tomorrow. We worked very closely together to overcome some of the hurdles and surprises. There was a lot of back-and-forth as far as the delivery schedule. We managed together, batch sizes to keep my production moving forward and helping us meet our customer’s deadline for the project. And it’s happened on multiple occasions, whatever part I would give to Chet for
Advance CNC to make for us or at least give us a quote to let us know if they can make it, I mean there was no detail that was missed. The number one thing I’d have to put at the top of the list is just the quality, it’s just fabulous. I mean you know the customer service is certainly beyond reproach but when you come down to it, the quality is what makes the difference. Because that’s what I’m putting my name on and selling. So you know if the quality wasn’t there you know, game over.Probably the thing that got me the most is their packaging. The way they packaged it and the way they handle their product coming to me. It was very important to them to make sure that product is properly presented to us.
Not only the quality of work and the precision that they gave it, but the way they handled their the whole process, is very assuring that we’re going to get what we need on time.Advance CNC followed their deliverables when they say we’re going to have it to you on this date, I mean Chet would bring it out to us because we’re local, we’re nice and close, so he would bring it to us, we would open up the box we would inspect the part right then. So if we had any inconsistencies or it didn’t match what we were looking for he would take care of it right away. But that really didn’t happen, everything was spot on. I mean just really good. If the salesperson didn’t have the answer I needed, I didn’t have to wait long. That goes a long way, especially with the technical nature of what we were trying to achieve. We’re not buying plastic coat hangers.
We’re buying precision machined components.We can make a part for our customer that many other shops can make. They can make it well, we can make it well. But the difference is how do you make it for the customer to how it works for them? How do you make it so that they arrive in the packaging that works for them? How do you make it easy for the people on the dock counting the parts that makes it easy for them? So our biggest thing is taking care of the customer more than just making the part
