Firing on All Cylinders in 2021

Welcome to the first year of the rest of your life. Say what you will about 2020, but getting into 2021 has never been so welcome in my life. Things got to be better, right? Just agree with me on this one.

Our January issue is one that I had immense fun putting together. We circled a lot of paths in getting some very interesting shop profiles, technical articles, and news and tidbits to help you and your operations this year.

Our cover story focuses on a topic that I have been contemplating for several years now: what shops can do to fine-tune their customer list and rid themselves of customers who just aren’t worth the trouble.

This topic first came up several years back when I heard a few finishers talking about it at a conference. It started out with some discussion on ways to grow a business and add new customers and morphed into a singular topic: how do I get the most out of the customers I have now?

It was interesting how a few shop presidents talked about how they were addressing certain issues with some customers; the key term I kept hearing over and over again was “communication,” and how no problem should be a surprise is customer and shop are talking to each other on a regular basis.

Of course, every business wants to make the maximum amount of profit off of each customer, and things like rejects and reworks are going to eat into those profit margins quickly. Also, the time it takes to hand-hold and work through customer problems also takes away from profitability because the time spent answering and making calls and reinventing the wheel for a specific customer always takes time, and we all know that time is money.

I searched out 12 shop owners to get their thoughts on the best way to “break up” with a customer, and this issue brings together their thoughts. A few shops I reached out to respectfully declined my offer to talk about the subject; it was often too sensitive, or they just didn’t want to rehash bad experiences.

I gratefully appreciate the time and energy those shops took to help put this article together, and I hope that shop owners gain some insight into the thoughts of their peers. Hopefully, the takeaways will be well worth the effort, and readers learn how the best in the business do it.

As we start 2021, I want to thank again the loyal readers who have made this publication possible, and I appreciate your enthusiasm and support. Also, thank you to the industry suppliers who have supported this publication and helped us with content and insight.

This year will be another challenge, but I think we are all up for it. Hopefully, we are all stronger, wiser, and more appreciative of the things we have going for us, and 2021 will be a year of growth and prosperity for us all.