Addressing concerns inside and outside your manufacturing business

In good times and bad, manufacturing shop managers should keep a finger on the pulse of employees to make sure they’re taken care of and feeling appreciated. Feodora Chiosea/iStock/Getty Images Plus

As a salesperson, I’ve focused on growth most of my career. I go out and find the business and somebody else processes and retains it. My job is to hunt new work, keep the pipeline full, and check in regularly with existing customers to keep them happy.

Sure, I’ve had my fair share of managing unhappy customers, helping to smooth things over when a part doesn’t meet specifications. But now that I’m a business owner, unhappy customers are a much more personal problem.

When you are the one who pays the bills at the end of the day, a lost customer and rejected work hits harder. The small business I own with my husband has been growing at a rapid pace the past three years, almost doubling in size each year. With growth comes hiring, onboarding, and training. Everyone in manufacturing knows hiring skilled labor is almost impossible, and most of us make do with whoever shows up for the interview and has a pulse. Fortunately, we have found employees with good attitudes and work ethic—which, in our opinion, outweighs experience and education.

As my husband has transitioned from working in the business to working on the business, we have experienced growing pains. Most recently, we had some significant errors on a large job that have cost us time and money. As we worked through the event, I took notes to share lessons learned about dealing with unhappy customers.

Tackle Complaints Right Away

When a customer calls to report defective work, it often can stun an organization into inaction.

One rule I live by is deliver bad news as soon as you have it. This rule also applies when addressing customer complaints. A big problem can overwhelm leaders, and some team members will struggle with knowing when and how to start sorting through next steps. As a remedy, all staff involved in the project should immediately meet to review issues, discuss the root cause, and develop a plan with assigned tasks for moving forward.

Assigning tasks when bad news comes down is critical. Everyone needs to know exactly what they are accountable to address. Most importantly, someone should be designated to follow up with the customer, which brings me to my second point.

Communicate Early and Often

This is more of a sales tip—and a no-brainer for seasoned sales professionals—but angry customers need you to contact them frequently with updates while issues get resolved.

Dissatisfaction can be diffused by increasing communication. When things go wrong, customers have heightened anxiety; even 24 hours without communication can cause stress. They want to know they are high priority and that you are addressing their issues. Even if there isn’t a status update, check in and let them know when they can expect to hear from you next.

Double Down on Oversight and Training

Increase your involvement with employees. As business owners and managers, we have a full plate, and overseeing new employees seems tedious and unproductive at times.

However, it is likely that the employees involved in the error have as much anxiety as the unhappy customer. Typically, they welcome more handholding, especially if they are Gen Z and Millennial employees.

It might even be worth it to assign a more-tenured employee to partner with a less-seasoned employee, at least for the short term. We implemented end-of-day meetings with newer employees to review all work completed and talk through questions and concerns. Establish a process for bringing questions to a designated mentor and proactively meet with staff to review bottlenecks. Do not assume employees will speak up.

Give Positive Feedback and Encouragement

Most important, maintain a positive attitude and give more feedback on what’s going well than what’s going wrong. Growth is great, but new business puts a lot of stress on an organization. The higher the growth rate, the more stress. When new jobs come into the shop, the staff needs extra support and positive feedback as they tackle new processes and tasks.

Errors and mistakes should be expected and planned for as much as possible. Ultimately, the business owner benefits most from a growing company, so be good to your staff. Give them praise and many thanks for the extra effort they put in to add revenue and profit.