It wasn’t my idea to tell this story (it’s not my style to boast) but Cathy Cain-Blank, one of StanKraft’s new owners, insisted upon it. So here goes…

We have a longstanding client who purchases four-color process graphic overlays — and only four-color process overlays. No matter how hard I’ve tried over the years to sway this company to let us manufacture their membrane switches, it’s been to no avail. The reason? Money. Way back when, one of our competitors offered down-and-dirty pricing so this client turned to them for switches and to us for faceplates/overlays. On occasion they’ve invited us to bid on a new switch but their choice of switch vendor is always price-driven.

One day last spring I got a panicked call from this client. “We just started installing the first batch of ------ units on our point-of-purchase kiosks and the switches are failing! I called the manufacturer days ago and still haven’t heard back from them!” I offered to make the 40-minute drive to personally examine the switches and see if I could help.

Within minutes (okay, so I’m bragging a bit) I figured out why the switch keypad wouldn’t consistently function. Simply put? There was a flaw with the manufacturer’s process. I showed my client how to solve the problem on the spot.

I wish I could report that my engineering prowess that afternoon resulted in this client turning over all of their switch business to StanKraft. No such luck. But I was glad to be able to solve his problem, and I think this small feat has helped endear this client to our organization.

That’s it for our second e-bulletin. Hope you found it a worthwhile use of two minutes of your time! Please call me at 888-268-8068, ext. 222, or send me an e-mail, with your thoughts on how we can be helpful to you.

Phenomenal Regards,

Kevin Caruso
kcaruso@stankraft.com

P.S. If you’ve got any problems with switches designed by our competitors, holler!