Follow-up to my previous:
1. On my irate client anecdote: I was left to speculate that this client
was a bully and liked pushing people around when he had the power to do so;
or that he resented my youth (I was 27 at the time - I don't face this issue
much any more, at 53) and wanted to "bring me down a notch," or had a sister
or cousin or something in my industry and wanted to "strike a blow" for them
(I was using newer techniques and technology that practitioners of older
methodologies felt threatened by), or fill in the blank.
2. I was left with the theory, that I have thought about many times, both
as an "expert" producing some product using my expertise, or as a consumer
depending on someone else's expertise, that the layman typically does not
have the expertise to discern whether the product he is getting is excellent
or poor. This is obviously tougher for the consumer to discern when the
difference is between a slightly-above-average and a slightly-below average
product -- finer differences in quality that may be difficult to evaluate,
even subjective. To some extent, I have to take my plumber's word for it,
or my car mechanic's word for it, when he says he's fixed such and such.
Only if the fixtures leak or the car breaks down do I know something may not
be right. Still, it's difficult or impossible to directly correlate these
problems to shoddy work, in many cases. Things can still break, even after
the very best workman completes his work.
This theory does not seem to apply to torque arms with demonstrably poor
placement of drilled holes, provision of inadequate bolts, etc. This may be
more a case of quality control shortcomings and a producer acquiring
expertise (as to what is acceptable and what is not) from marketplace
feedback -- which should be normal, to some extent, and a respectable
process, if the knowledge gap isn't too great. Someone setting up shop to
produce something should know something about what they're doing and produce
a product that is at least marginally acceptable, and hopefully improve from
there.
73 - Rich, KE3Q
----- Original Message -----
From: "RICHARD BOYD" <ke3q@msn.com>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>; "Paul Henning" <paul@amtelco.com>
Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 11:49 AM
Subject: Re: ***WARNING**** DISHONEST SELLER K4IDC/KB4IDC : [TowerTalk]
LargeMast For Sale...last one
> And, no supplier is perfect. There is a spread of product quality and
> service that is a reality for every supplier of anything, be it a product
> or service. It could well be that most are completely satisfied with what
> they get from this supplier; Bob's experience may have been the exception
> rather than the rule.
>
> At one time, years ago, the business I owned had grown to 150 people on
> the staff. I had barely even met about half of the staff members (well,
> at least I didn't know them well, didn't directly supervise them), but I
> daily met with the half a dozen or so managers who did interface with the
> staff and who reported to me. I observed that we had a range of quality
> in the product we produced. Some was excellent quality; some was average
> (by industry standards) quality -- but by my own personal standards,
> barely adequate.
>
> I had occasion to observe out-going product, though, and one day, on an
> important deadline, was embarrassed to see some of the quality we were
> producing. But, it was more important to the client that the work came in
> on deadline than that it be "perfect." Well, it was far from perfect...
> but it had to go out. "Rework," after the fact, could be done if that's
> what the client wanted. (Note, safety was not involved; it was an
> information product -- printed documents.) I was (pleasantly) stunned to
> get letters of commendation, a few days later, on the high quality of the
> work, and "Please have the same people work on our work in the future who
> worked on that one!" I knew for a fact that the "excellent work" was in
> fact poor work.
>
> Interestingly, in this same time period we put out some work that I had
> personally checked and it was excellent, virtually perfect. We got a
> nasty letter from an irate client, saying how terrible the quality of the
> work was. A complaint letter was put in our file (it was contract work
> for the U.S. government, by the way), and I and some of my managers were
> called in for a face-to-face meeting to explain why this work was so
> poorly done and what steps we would take to ensure that it would never
> happen again. It was a ticklish situation, how to explain that the work
> was actually, for a fact, excellent. The client refused to specify the
> particulars of what they found so troublesome and refused to listen to the
> demonstration (and I was "armed" with the ability to clearly demonstrate
> that the work was in fact excellent) -- just wanted some sort of groveling
> on "our" part I suppose. It's sometimes difficult to know, in such
> situations, whether groveling to appease the client is the wisest
> approach, or firmly standing up for yourself is best -- because standing
> up for yourself is often not appreciated, even if you are absolutely in
> the right. Sometimes you can sort of walk a tightrope in between somehow,
> let them have their pride and retain your own self respect at the same
> time.
>
> Longer term, you let contracts with those sorts of people expire and you
> eventually find more reasonable clients to be your "bread and butter."
> And, you get your quality up to the "consistently excellent" by making
> decisions within your business. In my case, for instance, I no longer
> have 150 employees; I have me. I do as much work as I can do myself, turn
> out quality that I know to be excellent, and I do not (at least not
> actively, yet) try to grow beyond what I can do myself.
>
> Said another way:
> 1. You need to know what you're doing and not turn out a sub-standard
> product
> 2. You need to directly produce the product yourself so that you can be
> sure to turn
> out an excellent product or...
> 3. You need to ensure that your production process is directly supervised
> by people, like yourself, who know what they're doing, to ensure high
> quality.
>
> The flip side: As consumers, we need to appreciate that nearly all
> producers "have a bad day," or have a staff member who is fired a week
> later because their work was sub-standard, or some other factor that
> causes their quality to be poor some of the time, even if it's excellent
> most of the time. The best producers eliminate all the "poor moments,"
> but that may take time to work itself out, and then there may be future
> rough spots when a key person leaves, until replacements can be brought up
> to the same high standards. And, some producers of product are
> consistently better than others. It's the reality of the marketplace,
> even setting aside "dishonesty" or intentional deception, etc. Even those
> with the best of intentions do not always put their best foot forward.
> And there are plenty of people who do not have the best of intentions; but
> they tend to not stay in business forever or even for very long.
>
> 73 - Rich, KE3Q
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Henning" <paul@amtelco.com>
> To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2005 10:46 AM
> Subject: RE: ***WARNING**** DISHONEST SELLER K4IDC/KB4IDC : [TowerTalk]
> Large Mast For Sale...last one
>
>
> > Here we go again. Your post on this subject was enough!
> >
> > I too had a problem with a transaction with Robin. Unlike you however
> > the
> > problem was dealt with by Robin quickly and completely to my
> > satisfaction. I
> > am completely happy with both Robin and the product he sold to me.
> >
> > Again - once was enough!
> >
> >
> > Paul N. Henning
> > K9PH
> > Director of Research and Development
> > Amtelco
> > 4800 Curtin Drive
> > McFarland, Wisconsin 53558
> > www.amtelco.com
> > paul@amtelco.com
> > (608)838-4194
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> >
> > See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
> > Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with
> > any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > TowerTalk mailing list
> > TowerTalk@contesting.com
> > http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
> >
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
> Weather Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with
> any questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
> _______________________________________________
> TowerTalk mailing list
> TowerTalk@contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/towertalk
>
_______________________________________________
See: http://www.mscomputer.com for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless Weather
Stations", and lot's more. Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any questions
and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
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