Needy customers 1

[MechEng2005]

Greetings,

I am a younger engineer, about 3 years experience. I have in the past year started managing my own projects for equipment design.

I am currently working with a customer on a machine that was installed. The customer is constantly wanting things "tweaked" to work just the way they want. Things like adjusting flow controls on hydraulic valves, etc. The customer is about 50 miles from where I am working. Each time that ANYONE at that company decides something should be tweaked I am called and asked to come and make the changes. Since they have not made the final payment yet, I am sent to make the changes. After deciding some "tweak" needs to be made they stop using the equipment and say that I need to be there ASAP because they are waiting on me.

It seems that even practicing and getting used to the controls is not done unless I am standing there watching.

I am getting tired of these trips and standing around. Anybody have any suggestions on how to deal with this situation? Do I need to take a firmer stance, or should I leave that up to the salesperson? The salesperson would have the ability to say that they will not receive a person on-site unless they pay an hourly fee, which is why I think maybe they should say something to the customer.

Thanks for letting me rant and any advice is appreciated!

-- MechEng2005

 

[KENAT]

Yeah, I suppose the one thing arguably more important than what the contract says is what your boss says.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[moltenmetal]

That depends: is your boss using you to cover for a mistake with this client? Then what the contract itself says might be a lot more important than what he says...

 

[jmw]

A green light doesn't really mean that you are completely off the hook. You were/are evidently not happy with what is happening, boss's OK or not, and that is right.

The true cost of any project should be known or there will come a time when hidden costs have dire consequences.

But it is about more than costs, it is about customer satisfaction and perceptions.

Think about the following options:
[ul][li]Kit arrives, works straight from the box, everyone happy[/li]
[li]Kit arrives, doesn't work straight from the box. Nothing broke, but just not quite right. No inbuilt support so either "free" support, paid support or no support. Client has to beg support or pay for it or lump it.[/li]
[li]Kit arrives, would have/should have worked as option 1 but something has broken in transit or whatever.[/li][/ul]

Option 1 is surprisingly neutral. Once installed and paid for only the operators are aware it is there and working well. Then one day management orders new kit from a new supplier; how did that happen? Answer: everyone has forgotten what good kit it is.

Option 2 is bad news since all the client notes is that the thing wasn't designed right and that the manufacturer's engineers where forever on site (though by the time new kit is to be ordered no one can remember quite why).

Option 3 is the best it can get (but based on the exception rather than the rule).
Everyone accepts that things go wrong even with the best of companies.
What happens here is that rapid effective and unstinting support creates very strong and lasting good impressions. Poor support results in the exact opposite (and both probably exaggerated over time).

It is not surprising that when things go wrong clients measure things in terms of lost production (it never works to tell them how much money they will make if they buy it, but once they have bought it, they are damn quick to note how much they are losing when it doesn't work).

You have the opportunity to document "non-defects". You might, in extremis, want to get an order number from the client so you can have an official documentation trail with proper reports so both client and manufacturer can measure the extent to which the original design could be improved. It also allows the client to put a value on the support (even if they are not the ones invoiced but sales or engineering). This will ensure that the lcient will see nothing major and will know the value of the support they got and it will let your company know what the true cost is and show where it can be reduced on future projects. Otherwise, nothing will get done.

In an Ideal World.......




JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[KENAT]

Sorry, guess I should have put a smiley after my last post, it was said, or rather typed, somewhat light heartedly.

KENAT,

Have you reminded yourself of faq731-376 recently, or taken a look at

http://eng-tips.com/market.cfm?

 

[SomptingGuy]

I think JMW's observations on the three options are very good. They apply very well to engineering software too.


- Steve

 

[MotorVib]

The Truth is that every engineer has to deal with some thing like this at least once. and some of use get it more then once. All of the cuse listed above are right.

Live By The Contract. We all know what the customer wants and what is in the contract are to different things. They will always want more then the contract.

Chris

"In this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics." Homer Simpson

 

[MechEng2005]

Thanks for all the replies! More contact with the customer, but this time my boss decided there wasn't any value in me traveling to the customer without a valid reason (i.e. this specific item is not functioning or they are looking at purchasing "upgrades" to the existing system, etc).

The salesperson has also been more active in telling the customer what we (our company) will provide and will not.

-- MechEng2005

 

[jmw]

And don't you just wonder why the customer wasn't told this before the order was placed?

Watch out for sales telling the customer the new hard-line attitude is because you've been making waves....
(better to have the customer mad at you not the company as a whole and sales especially).

If you discover this happening, you've entered the world of politics.... tread carefully.

JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com