Recognition

Tuesday my one customer awarded our company one of seven supplier awards, chosen from their 290 vendors. The plaque read "Commended Supplier Finalist, in recognition of your work and dedication in collaboration to meet EZGo's goals of customer satisfaction and financial performance." Kind words were spoken by the customer’s higher-ups, in the presence of higher-ups from our company.

The past few years my company has come close to winning the award several times. The customer would invariably figure out a reason not to honor us, in spite of a great performance overall. Having the award to use as a contract negotiation tool was not something the customer wanted to have hanging over their heads.

A few months ago my company was awarded a three year contract extension, making this the perfect year for us to win the award. My department head and the regional president gathered our eleven person department together, along with three quality managers, the Norcross VP, and our pricing specialist, to make the surprise announcement. We were taken to Taco Mac for lunch.

Once again this year I was skipped over for our customer’s recent supplier golf tournament. I do need to make sure people know I’d like to go. My daily wardrobe of Masters golf shirts and Callaway golf sweaters and Under Armor golf pants must not be enough of a hint. It was tough to hear the brand new quality assistant talk about being given an invitation (her boss doesn’t play). We have been busy, both here and at home. Maybe next year.

Back in the late 80’s I had a large customer give us the Supplier of the Year Award (I didn’t handle customers from 1991-2007). The next year the customer awarded the contract to our competitor…our prices were too high.

After lunch we had a tough meeting with one of our subcontractors, who has performed spectacularly these past few tough months.