In her song “Big Yellow Taxi,” Canadian singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell wrote:
Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
‘Till it’s gone
That’s exactly how people feel when their manufacturing equipment fails.
Why Customers Panic When Equipment Fails
Today, almost all manufacturing facilities run lean. While they may not have formal lean programs in place regarding having “just in case” tools and equipment, there are no extras in the building.
This means that equipment failure usually results in lost production and seriously impacts the business.
How OEMs Handle Their Customers’ Lack of Spare Equipment
If you are an OEM, you recognize the importance of keeping your customer’s production running smoothly. You address the customer’s needs in six ways:
- Continuously improve equipment reliability and ease of repair.
- Deploy a well-trained service team, stock spare parts, and implement systems to ensure technicians and parts arrive quickly and promptly fix the affected equipment.
- To improve customer support, operate a modern call center, post support videos on YouTube, answer FAQs on your customer portal, and offer services like merged reality.
- Offer predictive maintenance along with more traditional preventative maintenance services.
- Train your sales team to emphasize company efforts to minimize equipment downtime.
- Survey your customers to ensure that these investments are actually increasing their confidence in buying and using your products.
How Customers React When Equipment Failure Interrupts Production
The tangible steps you take to prepare for possible equipment failure may not be enough to satisfy your most demanding customers.
When a work situation becomes pressurized, customers can become very emotional – they are beyond frustrated. In these times of high stress, employees your customer’s business often:
- Feel they are on the verge of getting fired
- Worry they may lose their bonus even if they keep their job
- Wish they had not purchased the equipment causing their current stress
- Think their boss is an idiot and should be able to control a pending temper tantrum
How to Respond to Frustrated Customers in a High-Stress Failure Situation
When emotions run high after a failure, everyone who interacts with the customer must sincerely convey their empathy for the stress. Simply apologizing for the equipment failure will not cut it; your employees should be trained on what to say and how to say it.
Reassure your customers that they made the right choice in purchasing your products despite this current challenge, and reinforce that you and your team are doing everything possible to restore machine operation.
And then you have to do it!
Going above and beyond should not require the authorization of a senior executive. I know of a regional service manager who, after a customer’s equipment failed, requisitioned a piece of demo equipment, chartered a business jet, flew the equipment and an installation team to the plant, and did a complete swap out in one night. That fellow is now a senior vice president of a major computer manufacturer!
More often than not, that kind of heroic effort is unnecessary (or feasible). But the effort that’s always appreciated is extraordinary communication. A team member must communicate with the customer – and not just communicate but communicate frequently and effectively to provide necessary updates.
Behind the scenes, your organization should also plan any compensation you may offer the customer. Depending on the circumstances, this could be monetary or another offer to effectively demonstrate your sincere regret that the failure occurred to your customer.
Finally, I hope your careers are lucky enough that you never have to go through a true “fire drill.” But if you do, remember that your customers “… don’t know what they’ve got ‘til it’s gone.”
Related article: Here is a related article about Predictive Maintenance and equipment failure.
About Middlesex Consulting
Middlesex Consulting is an experienced team of professionals whose primary goal is to help capital equipment companies create more value for their clients and stakeholders. We continue to provide superior solutions to meet our clients’ needs by focusing on our strengths in Services, Manufacturing, Customer Experience, and Engineering. If you want to learn more about how we can help your organization reduce customers’ pain when equipment fails, please contact us or check out some of our free articles and white papers here.
Image by Jon Kline from Pixabay