When you work with Mueller Custom Cut, you get a personalized experience.
We manufacture the most precise, highest-quality gaskets, seals, and various other die-cut products to suit your business needs.
Whether you are a new customer or have been part of our family for years, we want to know how we’re treating you.
If your experience has been positive, we want to find out what we’re doing right so we can incorporate more of that service into our operations. If something has gone wrong, we want to investigate the issue so we can fix it and learn from our mistakes.
Here’s how Mueller is taking customer feedback to the next level to better serve our clients and grow our business.
Survey Says...
Each year, we send a survey to our customers asking them to rate their experience with Mueller. When the results come back, we start looking for trends. Whether the data is positive or negative, we want to know whether we’re heading in a good direction or down a bad path. This allows us to affirm what’s right with our business and correct what’s wrong moving forward.
The annual survey asks our customers to evaluate us on several service-related topics including the ability to solve problems, flexibility when it comes to requests, quality of our information, and value of our products.
If a customer responds with negative feedback, we take action by using the eight disciplines (8D) problem-solving approach to investigate the complaint.
Steps include:
- Creating a team
- Describing the problem
- Developing a containment plan
- Determining & verifying the root causes
- Verifying permanent solutions
- Defining & implementing corrective actions
- Preventing recurrence
- Congratulating the team
Once our investigation is complete, we follow up 90 days later to make sure the problem has been resolved.
A New Trend?
When the Mueller team reviewed our customers’ responses from the last survey, it wasn’t negative feedback that grabbed our attention.
Once a customer ranks their experience in various areas of service, the last question on the document asks, “Overall, how likely are you to recommend Mueller Die Cut Solutions?”
Here is where we discovered an interesting trend: 93% of respondents said they were extremely or very likely to recommend Mueller to others!
Normally, we may have been content to simply acknowledge the positive result, pat ourselves on the back, and move on. However, because of a renewed focus on referrals over the past six months, our sales manager, Mike Bryant, was inspired to take this data and create a new action plan.
He asked for the contact information of the customers who said they were very likely to recommend Mueller. He planned to pass those details onto his team so they could follow up on specific referrals.
“We’re asking them, ‘Let’s work together,’” said Bryant. “‘Help us grow our business. We really appreciate it.’”
Reaching Out
Bryant understood it was important to use this data to Mueller’s advantage while the business was still on the top of customers’ minds.
Once his team gathered all of the phone numbers and email addresses, the salespeople started asking this group of customers for names of businesses that may be interested in working with Mueller. They also asked the customers if they’d be willing to give testimonials about their experiences.
The goal was simple: start conversations and build relationships.
“The value of getting somebody who’s already had the experience with Mueller to refer us to somebody else is the best testimonial you can get,” Bryant said.
Work in Progress
Bryant said this new method of networking is still in its early stages, but many customers have responded favorably and passed along contact information.
“Some of them are even making introductions for us. They say, ‘Hey, let me send them an email,’” said Bryant. “We’re trying to get more of that.”
Mueller is also trying to get referrals by working with customers outside of the survey as well as our vendors.
“It’s just become part of our repertoire. We’re asking, ‘If you like what you’re getting, help us talk to more people,’” Bryant said.
Taking Customer Feedback to the Next Level
Now you know that working with Mueller is more than just a transaction; it’s a partnership.
Our mission is to build stronger customer relationships through creative solutions and outstanding service. We’ve found a new way to do that by using our annual survey data to solicit customer referrals.
Mueller proudly serves a variety of industries by providing top-quality die-cut products using innovative technology. Contact us today about your next project!
