What Could Go Wrong If The Customer Says Everything Is Right?

What Could Go Wrong if the Customer Says Everything is Right?

There is a fine line when dealing with safety. The old saying; “The customer is always right”, sometimes must go out of the window. Some of you might think that is a losing strategy, however, a real life situations call for Arpco to make a decision on what is the safest route for everyone.

Recently we had a customer call in and order a safety system configured to “shut-in” the well in the event of a power failure. We built the system to spec, tested in shop, and proceeded to location for install. Once we arrived the customer looked over our products and told us that there must have been a miscommunication because the system was wrong. We listened and acted in order to meet the customers expectations. We reconfigured the system, installed, and they tested on location. Once they reviewed the test, they gave us the “all clear” and signed off on a completed project.

Our internal process was triggered to begin an “after action” due to the reconfiguration. We wanted to know why we had initially missed the mark on what the customer wanted. In this process we determined that it was likely the system would not actually work as the customer hoped, and the testing had yielded a false sense of security. There was a certain amount of dread that crept up when faced with having to ask a customer to come on-site and prove that our system was installed in a way that would surely lead to failure. Be that as it may, we knew that leaving it as is would be a risk that we were not willing to take.

Due to the wonderful relationship we have built with this partner they were willing to hear us out and we ended the day with the correctly installed configuration. The customer was grateful that we took the time to go the extra mile, but more importantly, that he had what he needed on location. It would have been a much easier path to take the “thumbs-up” from the customer initially. Easier is not and will not ever be the determining factor for Arpco deciding what the safest route is. That is why I find it easy to sell Arpco products with such a great peace of mind. I know I can attach my name to the Arpco brand without fear of being let down.

The customer is always important, but safety remains the mission…