Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Quality: the best customer service

6 jobs.

270 pieces each.

1 week.

Total accuracy.

Done.

When a medical supplies client came to us with this job, we were ready. Our two newest technicians worked all week to make sure all 1,620 samples were perfect in every respect. When they were able to hand back the completed report at the end of the week, accuracy had met efficiency. We were happy about yet another job well done. The client was happy about meeting their deadline and about the feeling of security that comes from knowing you have a safe, solid product on the market.


When dealing with medical supplies, accuracy is vital. Errors can hurt a patient—or worse. In this case, the product in question was a hospital bed remote—not as vital to a patient's health as, say, a surgical instrument, but definitely a part of their comfort and recovery. But that's important, too. We take all of our jobs seriously here at Made to Measure. Knowing that a simple mistake on many of our projects—car brakes, surgical instruments, etc.—could seriously hurt someone is definitely a motivator for accuracy. But even simple, non-safety-related items—like a tube of chapstick—when not in spec, can turn into a major annoyance for a consumer (ever had makeup spill in your purse before?)—and that motivates us, too. For us, quality assurance is one of the highest forms of customer service. It's giving customers confidence that the product in question—whether a tube of chopstick or the vehicle they drive their kids to soccer practice in—is functioning as it should. We don't measure something to be "roughly" correct. There's no "just eyeball it." We go down to .0001" and inspect every dimension—some projects have thousands of angles to check. And every angle is worth it to know that we're keeping customers around the world happy every day.

Balancing accuracy and efficiency can be difficult. But that balance is what keeps us working hard at M2M, and why we're willing to do whatever it takes—work the late hours, hire additional staff (welcome, Clara and Mason!), and pull together the whole team—to make sure every project leaves exactly to spec and on time, serving our customers by helping them serve their customers.

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