There once was a company who made a lot of shipping errors. Customers were beginning to get really upset and started threatening to take their business elsewhere. After thinking long and hard about what to do, the owner decided to give each department a bag of nails and he told the supervisor of each respective department, “Every time an order was shipped wrong, the person who made the error must hammer a nail into the back fence”.  The first day, the warehouse had driven 16 nails into the fence, customer service had driven 20 nails into the fence and purchasing only had to drive 7 nails into the fence. Totaling 43 nails the first day alone, and after only a week they could not believe how many nails had been driven into the fence.

Over the next few months, as the company began to improve things got a lot better and the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. People began to discover it was easier to pay closer attention to the customer’s order than to make the dreaded walk to the back of the building and drive those nails into the fence.

Finally, the day came when there weren’t any mistakes at all. The respective managers told the owner and he suggested, “Wait a week and see how each of your departments continue to do.” By the end of the second week without a mistake, the owner suggested each department now pull out one nail for each mistake free day.

The days passed and managers were finally able to tell the owner that all the nails were gone. The owner then called an emergency meeting with the entire company in the back by the fence. He said, “You have done well, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When we ship an order wrong, can’t find the inventory promised to a customer or don’t deliver their order when promised, it leaves a scar just like this one. And he pointed to the holes in the fence. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It eventually won’t matter how many times you say ‘I’m sorry,’ the wound will still be there. Our customers spend their hard earned money with us, because we have promised two simple things. That we will deliver what they want, when they need it. If we don’t do that it is like driving a nail into their account. And a customer will only take being hurt so many times until they begin giving their business to our competitors. And it is virtually impossible to get a customer back once they are gone.”

How many nails would your fence have?

Rene’ Jones is the founder of Total Logistics Solutions, Inc. (www.logisticsociety.com <http://www.logisticsociety.com/> ). Rene’ is a published author and industry speaker, his recent articles and workshops have focused on improving warehouse distribution operations. You may contact Mr. Jones at (888) 807-0958 ext. 709 or via email at rene.jones@logisticsociety.com.