Our Customers - from the viewpoint of DG
by the Sales Manager of DG Flugzeugbau
In the article, "DG - As seen by our Customers", one could read some opinions about how we or our products were regarded. In this article, I would like to make clear how the company regards the customer, what we understand under the term "Service", and how we try to interact with you.
As an opening to this article, let me state an opinion that we often hear:
"You sailplane manufacturers produce excellent products, but you are all too inflexible and behave like a monopolies."
Fortunately, this is usually followed by:
"Well, that really applies the least of all to you people at DG!"
Naturally, as Sales Manger, that cuts me to the quick. But maybe I should try to explain the source for such an opinion. It is strange that all high performance gliders in the world are produced by only three manufacturers and they are all in Germany.
I know of no other similar situation. You need only look at the entries in the last world championship to confirm the truth of this. Glider production is almost 100% precision manual labor and therefore very expensive. All attempts to use cheaper labor in other countries have been unsuccessful in gaining a competitive edge. In addition, all three factories were founded by glider pilots who were apparently only interested in achieving the highest technical performance. None of them needed to worry about sales. It was enough to occasionally win a world championship and already the customers were standing in line for that model. The gliders were distributed and the customers were there only to win contests - not to disturb production!
This was true of the earlier Glaser-Dirks company, but I hasten to add that I was not Sales Manager during that time.
On the one hand, the sales situation today is not much different. The DG-1000 is so successful that our delivery time is already longer than we would like. On the other hand, the spirit of the DG Flugzeugbau company has changed dramatically in that we have today an active marketing and customer relations program. The following are the principles of this program:
- Since we are offering a product that is twice as expensive as a luxury automobile, we think the potential customer has the right to complete information and a detailed description of this product. A glider requires a large amount of explanation and this requires more than just a few pages containing hardly more than the base price.
- We formally request our customers to state their individual equipment requirements. If they are not part of the regular production, then we will attempt to realize the request anyway. When it is not possible, then we at least want to react in a flexible manner to the customer's request.
- We try our best to hold to the agreement that has been made with the customer. If, because of technical difficulties in production, the delivery time is lengthened, we need to inform the customer promptly.
- We treat all our customers equally. With respect to the delivery schedule, nobody will be moved forward or behind another. No one!
- We want to keep our customers continually informed about background information and new developments about us. That is what our "Newsletters" and our Internet Web-site cd-dg-flugzeugbau-e.htmlare for. Slowly we are becoming a "family" with our customers.
- We try to remain available to our customers at all times and to answer questions promptly. That means not just until the order is in hand, but continuously as long as the customer flies one of our gliders.
Of course we make mistakes and break our own rules. Who doesn't?
That those are not simply empty words can be seen from the following action:
One of our employees had become accustomed to looking at the "caller ID" whenever the telephone rang in order to check first on who was calling before he answered. If a customer called who he didn't want to speak to at the moment, he just let it ring. When the boss happened by accident to notice this behavior, the man was fired!
On the left you see part of my salary statement. The notice there is on the salary statement of every employee every month so that he is always reminded! It says:
"This salary is neither paid by the company nor by the bank; it is paid by our customers."
There is, however, a problem. In spite of the oligopoly in the market situation, it is extremely difficult to make money in the manufacture of gliders. With this in mind, I must define the limits of our customer relations and the areas in which I cannot compromise:
- All customers pay the same price. I will not give any price concessions. The same is true of price increases.
- We give a one year guarantee against all manufacturing defects. Any additional work must be charged for.
- We cannot give a definite delivery time. There is a great deal of work to bring a glider to completion for delivery. The possibility of delay is always there.
I believe these "limitations" are reasonable and fair in that we want to treat all customers the same. All in all, it has been a good experience for me that, with the formation of DG Flugzeugbau, concepts like "marketing" and "customer relations" have entered this business even though that has had the consequence of requiring some employees to change their way of thinking!
What happens when you are of the opinion that we have broken our own rules of behavior and have been unfair to you or handled your situation badly?
When it has been done by one of my colleagues, tell me about it. If I am the guilty one, tell the boss. If we make mistakes, we want to at least learn from them!
I look forward to earning your trust as we work together in the future.
Comments from the "Boss"
by K.-F. Weber:
The story about the situation involving caller ID is true. There were, however, other factors. Otherwise a strong reprimand would have been enough.
The suggestions for better customer service fell on wide open ears because of my earlier experience as a potential customer of the original Glaser-Dirks company. With the ensuing demise of the DG-800, I looked to other manufacturers for comparable gliders.
My first experience as a customer of a company in the "Rhoen" was very positive. I talked with the designer himself who immediately started the process of obtaining a delivery position for me and put me in contact with the factory director.
A short anecdote connected with this:
As I was puzzling over the technical details in the motor compartment, I was asked:
" what is your educational background?"
My answer, "I have a master's degree in business."
He again: "That's what I thought. Listen, the motor mechanism works. The best thing to do is to weld the motor compartment doors shut so that you won't mess around in there and break something!"
Well, Gerhard, we would never have guessed in March of 1996 what was to happen only a few weeks later.......
The second experience from 1996 was hardly to be imagined:
At my request for descriptive literature, I was supplied with simply a price list. A prospectus was "neither available nor necessary." The gliders were built as well as possible and therefore a prospectus was not necessary. When I asked about a delivery time, I was told to "come back in two years" and ask again. No other information was available. Notice that he was not talking about a two year delivery time, he was saying don't even ask for two years! At first I was speechless until I finally said, "Suppose I came to you and put Euro 110,000 cold, hard cash on the table and wanted a glider in exchange. Would that be OK?" The answer was the same: I should ask again in two years; a delivery time could not be named at that time.
When this happened to me, I thought there must be a huge amount of money to be made in this line of work if prospective customers can be treated in such a way. This experience contributed much to my thinking when I became a glider factory owner a few weeks later. To put the record straight, it must be mentioned that my colleague, who is head of that other firm, knew absolutely nothing of the treatment I received and that is certainly not their company policy. I don't remember anymore with whom I spoke, but I assure you that it happened just as I described it!
I have a further addition to the "View of the Customer": It is a constant source of astonishment and pleasure to me the extent to which some customers identify themselves with our products and suggest improvements. There is no question that we had problems at the beginning with our DG-800B which are all happily solved by now. A large part of the items on "Wilhelm's List" with all improvements were based on comments by our customers. I must honestly say that cheaper, more creative engineers are impossible to find!
I want to take this opportunity to thank all who have contributed ideas for the success of the glider and to renew my request for more good suggestions. We won't implement all of the ideas submitted but we will carefully evaluate every one of them.
translated by David Noyes, Ohio