The monthly roundup from Editor-in-Chief Susan Sutton.
My favorite restaurant in town
serves excellent food. I’ve never had a bad meal there, and the prices are
reasonable, too. The main thing I love about it, though, is the great service.
It’s wonderful to be greeted warmly and treated well throughout the entire
dining experience.
Bad service will keep me away from even the best restaurants and stores. For
example, it drives me crazy when I go to an appliance store and the “expert
staff” person mumbles that the product I’m looking for is over there…somewhere.
Or when the person manning the grocery store checkout would clearly rather be
anywhere else and can’t be bothered to pay attention to the obvious fact that
bananas do not belong on top of bread.
I once changed dentists because the new office administrator kept misfiling my
insurance claims. I liked the dentist and the rest of his staff, but dealing
with those headaches after every trip was just too much of a hassle. They say
don’t sweat the small stuff, but bad service-no matter how trivial-can very
often ruin an otherwise positive experience.
The importance of quality service expands exponentially when we look at
business-to-business relationships. The stakes are much higher than a $30
dollar meal or even a $200 grocery bill. Corporate customers can bring in
millions of dollars of business, and they expect-and deserve-the highest level
of service possible.
It’s not likely that any company or organization can be completely
self-sufficient, and we all inevitably seek various service suppliers to handle
a number of tasks. Whether it’s for product or material testing, full contract
manufacturing, or even a simple consultancy, we can turn to efficient,
responsible and effective service providers to handle long-term and ongoing needs,
or to step in for special projects or emergencies.
CI is
introducing our first annual
Services Directory in the December issue. The
Directory takes the place of the traditional Services
Marketplace section in this issue only. It includes an Address Index with
complete supplier contact information, and chart-style listings that specify
each services provider’s area(s) of expertise in an easy-to-read format.* Keep
the
Services Directory handy and check it periodically throughout the year
when you need to source service providers ranging from attorneys and
consultants to firing, lab and processing experts.
Please don’t hesitate to let us know if
CI can improve our service to you. Do you want to read
more about a specific topic? Would you like to see additional coverage in any
area of the industry? Or do you think we’re overdoing it for a particular
topic? Feel free to send me an e-mail at
suttons@bnpmedia.com or give me a call at (330) 336-4098 with any
suggestions.
We look forward to a happy, healthy and successful 2008. Happy holidays and
best wishes to you and yours from all of us at
Ceramic
Industry.
*Listings indicate
paid advertising. To be included next year, contact Ginny Reisinger at (614)
760-4220 or
reisingerg@bnpmedia.com for pricing and additional details.
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