Know The Tendencies of Your Customers

Many of our customers have done business with us for years and we appreciate every order they place here at the shop. Part of the reason they come back, besides stellar work, is the fact that I do my best to learn the tendencies and little idiosyncrasies of each. This does not mean I am at everybody's beck and call 24/7, but I do make an effort to give each and every customer the best service possible. 

Everyone is different, so doing the little things is a big part of why we keep clients coming back year after year. Obviously, it's difficult to learn the tendencies of newer customers, so I would have to say this is more of a retaining tactic than anything.  

Here are a few things I do to learn the tendencies of my customers.

Learning Their Ordering Style

All of our customers have learned the fabrication trade in all kinds of places, from all kinds of people. Some have been unionized, others have taught themselves and many have learned from installers on the job. This means we all posses a varied language when it comes to ordering custom sheet metal fittings. Naturally, I do my best to get them on my page, but with change comes complication, so keeping with their dialect can make things go a bit easier.

Learning different styles of how people see things in their mind has helped me become a better fabricator in the end, along with keeping a good diary of notes for each customer with specific needs. All of these things help to make sure orders are correct because mistakes slow up the job and ultimately lose the shop money.

When They Like to Pick Up Finished Orders

We don't deliver here at the shop so our customers are forced to pick their orders up and all of them work their day differently.  Some like to grab things early in the morning, some late in the day. In order to keep up good relations I will leave an order outside the door for someone who may arrive before I get in for the day or after I have left. This keeps from forcing people to live on my schedule, especially the clients we have good standing accounts with. Leaving an order out would not be something I'd do for a newer customer unless they paid me first.

My father and I have done this for years and it has been helpful to many of our clients over that time. We do a lot of work for HVAC service techs whose schedule is all over the place so providing this service can help to bring future good will and business.

Specific Customization to Customer Orders

We aren't a custom sheet metal shop for nothing. The main goal of our shop is to give each customer the quality, custom work they need to get the job done right. However, there are many small things needed for each and every customer who comes through the door. Some may like a 1/2" flange on their plenums and others may not. Different kinds of connections for different kinds of trunk duct and fittings is something we try to provide for everyone. We aren't a standardized fabrication shop so making sure you know what the customer wants is key to making sure they come back in the future.  

Learning the different tendencies of each customer may seem daunting at first but will payoff in the end. You want to give everyone the best experience possible whether your running a fancy boutique or a sheet metal fabrication shop like us.

Your product should speak for itself, but it doesn't hurt to make sure the person buying that product feels special as well.

Should We Start Accepting Bitcoin?

No, not yet anyway. But does the future hold a serious amount of business being done via Bitcoin? I'm no expert in the ways of Bitcoin by any means and I don't own any that I know of. However, as the internet and online business continue to grow you would have to assume something like Bitcoin is here to stay. Start-ups like Coinbase and others are gaining traction from the venture capital community as we speak.

Let's be honest, most of money is just numbers on a screen anyway. The tangible form of currency has been changing for centuries. Money used to be cattle or physical wheat, then coins and bills, now a transaction with a plastic card or your mobile phone. How much cash do you really deal with on a daily basis anyway? Bitcoin doesn't sound so crazy when you really think about it.

My father and I run a very local small business so cash does change hands much of the time. However, the amount of credit cards or PayPal transactions has increased over the last few years and we deal with a lot of internet challenged customers. The amount of young people who do everything on the web are increasing and they will soon be your customer base.

Accepting Bitcoin might not be a near future method of transaction but I wouldn't discount the way things are trending. 

When The Business Tells You Help is Needed

Finally a minute to reflect after a dizzying few weeks of fabrication.

The company is busy, I am happy and the goal still remains to bust ass into the future. However, when things are crazy and your spinning like a drugged hippie at a Phish concert, you realize help may be needed to keep this torrid pace going forward. Our new technology has been fabulous, cutting fabrication time in half, but sometimes a few warm bodies around to pick up the slack is what you need to get the job done in necessary time. This is the place we find ourselves as a company and it is scary.

The easy part. Recognizing you have a problem.

Now the hard part.

We have been a two man operation for over 20 years, only hiring temp workers here and there. Having a staff of any kind is completely foreign to my father and I, leaving us with many questions moving forward and a tight feeling in our guts. More people means more money, leadership etc.

Payroll tax, health benefits, the interview process, you name it, we need to prepare for it. Figuring out our best path is still something we are mulling over and have been for weeks now. The process will be daunting and scary but I feel like the family is up for the challenge. 

Honestly, we have to be. We need the help if we are going to grow this business past what it has been for the last 20 years and that is something I am striving for. 

Personally, I am not the type to jump into unknown waters, preferring to learn a few things about what may be lurking. I need some data. However, the process will be quickened if the amount of work coming through the doors continues through the rest of the summer and fall. I fully expect it will, so time is of the essence. 

BTW, these are good problems to have as a company in my opinion and they are a far cry from the problems we contended with a few short years ago.