Services First: Everyday Solutions for Customers’ Future Success

There’s a popular saying in business that “the customer is always right.” And while there’s definitely truth to that in terms of a best-practice approach to keeping your customers happy and loyal, it shouldn’t be the only approach. It should be interconnected with an overall business model that not only puts customers first – but partners with them to solve problems well into the future.

At Van Meter Inc., we sell electrical supplies and automation solutions. And we do that very well. But our real success is driven by how we continue to offer additional services to our customers and deliver lasting value to them. This is a “Services First” company culture that differentiates us in the electrical distribution industry.

Lots of companies can sell products to our customers. Our goal is to provide support and services beyond just that product. How can we create lasting value for our customers by making their job easier? How can we help them overcome challenges they’re facing that they might not even realize they’re facing? These are the questions we ask ourselves every day.

Van Meter has always dedicated resources to customer outcomes, so the “Services First” mindset comes naturally to us. Many companies focus on customer transactions – orders, part repairs or training classes, for example – rather than long-term strategic approaches for their future success. While that type of transactional customer engagement is common, it’s often short-sighted. Sure, we can deliver an engineer to troubleshoot something that broke in a customer’s plant. But we can also identify solutions to make sure the problem doesn’t happen again. This means we must listen to customer concerns, and take a big-picture look at what we can do to keep them operational and efficient. All the time.

We work with thousands of companies across various production industries – medical devices, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals and agriculture to name a few. Each have unique (and similar) challenges that we help them address. Some of the most common ones include a lack of workforce training as retirement rates continue to rise; a globally disrupted supply chain; cybersecurity concerns; and an overarching issue that we call digital transformation. A growing number of our customers really want to transform their businesses right now. They just don’t always have the time or budget to identify how to go about it, or even manage it all. That’s where we can be a true partner.

For example, when a customer is facing a challenge with their OT/IT network security on a plant floor, Van Meter not only sells (and maintains) products that will fix the problem – but we also make recommendations for future improvements as well. This is our “Assess, Design, Implement and Support” model for services and solutions, and it works for nearly every customer regardless of size.

Even after the products are sold, we want to be there for our customers. We never want it to be a one-and-done deal. We want to set them up as a partner well into the future. That’s how we bring lasting value.

On a daily basis, “Services-First” comes down to understanding customers’ needs – and being observant enough to ask the right questions. Because Van Meter has always taken customer service seriously, a service-and-support approach is already embedded into our culture. And that’s key to our customers’ success.

We can’t just distribute electrical products. That’s only part of the value we provide. We take the time to reflect, to meet with our customers and help solve daily problems that they’re dealing with so we can get it right the first time.