Customer relations- how would you handle this?

Hello all-

We had an incident yesterday with a new customer that I am looking for advice on. This individual pulled onto our truck scale, but not far enough to get his back wheels off of the cement. Our scale operator motioned for him to pull forward, which he took as the signal to go unload. Our scale operator was not able to get in touch with any of my guys in the ferrous yard fast enough to stop him from throwing the water heater he had brought in out of the bed of his truck, and he was promptly back on the scale. When our scale operator went out to explain what had happened and offered to have our employees bring the water heater up to be weighed while she did the state mandated paperwork on his vehicle, he declared that our facility was a "circus" and stated that he would be telling everyone he new that we were a bunch of cheats.

While I'm not concerned about losing his business (not sure I want that type of customer anyway), I am concerned about the image that he will paint of our facility in the local scrapper community. I have video of his vehicle on our scale (I haven't had a chance to look at it yet) and there may be a company logo/phone number on the door of his truck. We really take great pains to be a friendly, professional yard and I hate for anyone to leave with a bad taste in their mouth.

Should I try and contact this guy, or just write it off as not being able to please everyone, every time?

I'd say you'll probably just have to write off this one. But you might want to think about setting up new procedures for scale operations so there is no confusion over when to adjust positioning on the scales and when to drive off. I've used five different local yards, each with slightly different procedures but with one common feature. I would never be waved off or given a green light until the load was weighed/recorded. I'd get yelled at to "pull up a little" but not waved forward.

You absolutely have to contact this customer. With today's websites like Angies List and Yelp, he can give you a bad rep all over town in a heartbeat. Way easier to fix this now than repair damage later. GIVE him something by way of apology for the misunderstanding. Pay him for an extra hundred pounds of shred or something, you'll come up with something that works. You want to nip this in the bud!

While you don't want to really kiss butt, as he could have handled himself better, I agree with everyone else, that one bad rep can ruin any company.

One yard I go to has a cheap CB radio with pa function and it's only used as a PA system if they have to communicate with a driver. That way there is no confusion over "hand signals". Don't even need an antenna for the radio if it's only being used as a PA, or do like the truck stops and put up an antenna for the CB and post a sign at the entrance that the scale monitors channel 5 or whatever channel. There you would have your communication with some of the bigger trucks.

Thanks for the input guys. We have been looking to install a permanent intercom system at the entrance to the scale, cost for a quality system has been the issue. Mechanic, I really like the idea of setting up a PA. It's a quick fix that would remove a significant amount of ambiguity.

With regard to the customer, the most frustrating aspect of the whole event was that he did not allow us the chance to fix the problem. We easily could have estimated the weight and faked a ticket for him, but that's not the type of company that I run. My employees all know that I expect them to be completely truthful with our customers and to promptly tell them if a mistake has been made. We always follow this by offering a solution that is in their favor. One of my faults, I hate being punished for doing the right thing.

A simple red green light or One of the lifting bar gates at the end of the scale will take care of this problem as well and chances are you have the parts to build it in your yard as it is. I would try to contact him and smooth some feathers but get something installed fast to make sure that it can never happen again. I can tell you this week i use a yard with a roll on scale. It was pouring rain and we could hear/ see ****. But that little street light at the end of the scale kept us all a little more dry till we had to unload. Just yelling or waving doesnt cut it. many people have bad hearing/sight and wont say a word about it.

Maybe you could pick up an old city stop/go light cheap but that still will not allow you to communicate with them on the scale. A PA would get your message out to the truck without the scale girl having to leave the scalehouse and go outside.

use all 3 and invite the local newspaper to see your new upgrades and how your helping the community out and recycling at the same time.

You really want the media coverage as well. Dune has a point, when you finish the upgrade a quick call to the TV news gets you a lot of free pub. I would also call the guy and make amends. It is said that one negative customer can cost you 11 new customers. That kind of ratio is something you don't want to ignore.

Originally Posted by dunemaul

use all 3 and invite the local newspaper to see your new upgrades and how your helping the community out and recycling at the same time.

brill yunt!!!

Pistone-

We have everything installed that you mentioned except for the lights/pa. Completely ticketless, everything that is weighed is also automatically photographed and stored digitally. We also run a 30 day digital audio/video recording of the entire premises through a ton of cameras. None of that was cheap, but it has proved to be incredibly useful on a number of occasions. Signs are also in place, even to the point of warning people with pacemakers that if they are going to the ferrous yard they may be exposed to strong magnetic fields.

I really do appreciate the comments on some basic improvements that we could make to our scale set up, it's an area that I know we need to work on. Also, the initial screwup was ours. No argument there. The main question I have is this: isn't it better to come clean immediately and explain what happened to the customer? Since we did this from the start, I'm really not sure how to approach the guy when I contact him. Tell him it was our fault? Done. Offer a way to fix the problem in a fair manner? Done. Apologize profusely? Done.

My plan right now (IF I can find the guy from info on his vehicle that we pull from the cameras) is to simply apologize one more time and ask for another chance to show him how we do business. Any thoughts on additional things I should try? Burly Guys is very on point with his comments regarding internet ratinings...I shudder when I think about how much influence a negative rating has on my decisions when I am looking for contractors or suppliers.

Looks like you have done your best. Once everything at the scale is set up you(mgr) needs to ensure the employees are following the proceedures.

I think any business that screws up and admits to it and offers to make up for the error are doing every thing they can.

If you tell this guy that you made these changes because of the incident then he should recognize you took it seriously. Best of luck, Mike.

Is this guy a regular, it doesn't sound that way, sounds like a homeowner who was pissed that the wife made I'm get rid of something. Why bring something in and not get paid for it? Sounds like its a customer you don't want around anyway. Make all the changes you have to make, get some good coverage of it thru local media, and move on. It unlikely you or any other yard will see this guy again. I think you and your staff went above and beyond to make him happy. Good job!!!!!