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.

after running a printing company for 25 years, I know one thing...those that know people like that, know what kind of person they are anyway! Those that work with YOU, know what kind of people they are working with! So, I would try to make it right with them, chances are not much may please them, but... you will go to sleep with your integrity, and wake up with it to take on another day! jus my 2. BroJer

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.

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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.

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brill yunt!!!

a red light green light system along with a PA system would have saved you this headache all together. I would also look into getting a system that is all computerized and takes pictures of all the loads incoming and outbound ferrous and non ferrous. Every major scrap yard has them and it also eliminates paper tickets and makes everything run smoothly as it should in your yard. You might want to put up signs that also say make sure you are completely on the scale or your load might not get weighted right or something like that. Just a few suggestions good luck and I hope you work it out with your customer but honestly some customers aren't worth the headache to deal with so the choice is up to you.

You have to protect the idiots!! People like that will definitely lie about the situation as a whole and bring your business down considerably. I remember I went to one yard that was a little bit out of my way to see how things were there and the 3 times I went on their scale my truck weighed 3 different weights like a 2-400lb swing. I went to the office and asked to speak to a manager and they blew me off. Needless to say me and a few others I told about the situation don't go there anymore. I know my loads aren't big anyway between 200-2000lbs on a good day, but also the other 5 people I told don't use that yard any longer. That's a lot of weight throughout the year though. So far this year myself I brought in just over 6 tons of steel not including non-ferrous. So it all ads up in the end.

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.

So the guy drove off and did not get paid??? The only thing he brought in was a water heater? Maybe he did not want to do the state mandated paperwork?

I wouldn't worry too much about him telling a "bunch of people". He brought in ONE water heater? He's big time alright. I bet he even left the brass on and wants to accuse YOU of cheating him.

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!!!!!

I Think you should try and track him down not because you were in the wrong you weren't but because it'll be a mountain before you know it. I know it's a different subject but I've heard folks give restaurants a bad name because they screwed up their order and when I asked the waitress what was wrong it was something small a cup of coffee or pop but you ask the customer it's the whole order the same thing will happen here it may be a water heater but when he tells others it'll be a truck load then the second person will tell it and it'll be truck and trailer and so on some folks thrive off of this type of thing. Our transfer station here has the red and green light with the weight shown below it the light doesn't change until the numbers stop bouncing .

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Originally Posted by HLH&R Metals Recycling

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?

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I deal with "individuals" like this daily. Just write it off and leave it be.

the yards ive been to usually scream GO AHEAD!!! Like you know the deal get on with it. Being a new scrapper i'd like a digital read out of how much my truck weighs i have felt like the scale person shaved off 100 lbs a couple times. Im used to sitting on the scale 3-5 mins before hearing yelling GO AHEAD! When i went out of town to a yard the guy is sitting in front of a window and slightly nods his head,i thought he was just saying wassup, then i just keep looking at them and he's looking at something else then looks up at me and gives me a thumbs up. Im like what the heck does that mean go? Where do i go? I keep looking at him and he waves me on and i point like where over there? By those huge scary cranes with giant magnets swaying (signs are saying we are not responsible for damage to your vehicle.)
One guy at my home yard waved me pointed me to back in by the dump area and this maniac is driving the bobcat like really funky making those sharp turns like they do. And while im unloading my tower these guys out of sight in a uhaul truck i can't see throw out a water heater and it comes rolling over to my side and almost fell on my leg then on top of that the guy in the bob cat is talking **** saying he'll run over my truck (nice clean truck with rims) next time. ******* is real helpfull to unload my truck of my aluminum into the steel but when i have heavy stuff he just looks stupid. and on top of that runs his mouth sayings he'll purposly hit my truck. He better watch where he's going on that bobcat i was on my side where his partner pointed me to go.

Lots of angry people in the world.

Chances are this person will not have many friends / people to tell.

This incident will not ruin your business.

I'd ignore them.

If for some reason they come back, I'd keep a copy of his license plate number on the wall.

Our yard also has a way around this- there's a crossing beam at both ends of the scale.

As for this guy, though, I wouldn't worry about him at all.

for the lights a simple set of bulbs and a couple light switches fix the light issue. just wire in 2 light sockets on a seperate switch. it is easy to do and can be mounted to a simple post.

my normal yards all have a speed limit sign of 3mph because of the radiation detectors. if you go through too fast or dont wait for the light you reweight. you are also directed in person to a suitable unloading spot. (nice if you have a nicer vehicle and want to hand unload to avoid damage. normally if available with customer load they also provide a helper who also monitors content protecting yard.) if you dont follow the simple rules you are refused service.

anything less than $10 in my yards is a donation as they dont cut checks for any less.

as for reputation you made a good faith effort... you cant do more than that. idiots like that are why many in our are seen as distasteful. i agree he probably would not bring you enough to be worth hassle. you did your part and were more than fair.

Hard fast rule. A satisfied customer MAY tell some one if asked. A dis satisfied customer will tell ten people even if not asked.