Putting Your Customers' Needs First

meanwhile the business staff are sitting inside doing nothing! How is that for a favorable impression? I don’t even wear a watch, but I am NEVER late for an appointment; in fact, I am usually early! I have never been refused entry at Walt Disney World or Disneyland even if I arrived a little early…they have PLANNED their schedule to make sure their guests have a “great customer experience” … and that includes getting into the park early if you happen to arrive a few minutes early! It is the little things in life that can make a big difference in how your customers perceive your business. • User’s Manual/Databook – In our age of electronics and the Internet, it is hard to fathom when people had to rely on manual filing systems for retrieving product and application data but that is how it used to be back in the “dark ages”. Industry catalog data was produced on individual product sheets which were numbered and kept in a binder. Companies used to have literature libraries and they employed librarians to receive, index and maintain suppliers’ catalog data for their employees to use when specifying or designing products. In fact, Westinghouse’s entire product catalog was said to be about six feet long if mounted in a single reading file; the Semiconductor section was assigned to the 54-000 series of numbers! Back in the 1970’s, Texas Instrument and Motorola both produced large single book catalogs for their Integrated Circuits that you could buy from Radio Shack, but no one in the discrete semiconductor business had tackled assembling all of their technical data into a single book. Things were about to change at Westinghouse Semiconductor; in 1978 at our National Sales Meeting in Seven Springs, PA (30 miles from our Youngwood, PA plant), I handed out our new Westinghouse Power Semiconductor User’s Manual and Data Book. It became an instant hit with our sales force and our customers.

Everything you ever wanted to know about Power Semiconductors – but were reluctant to ask! Ideal for all users of power semiconductors regardless of job function, technical background and experience level…two books in one, 8 ½ x11 format, easy to read, fully indexed, and 432 pages. We sold the book back then for $6.50 with free shipping; of course, we sent our existing customers FREE copies for their use! The Westinghouse Printing Division was not exactly overjoyed as this book was the “beginning of the end” for the old catalog binder system at Westinghouse.

• National Sales Meeting – Annual National Sales meetings are a very important vehicle to get in sync with your sales team and to introduce major new products and marketing initiatives for the coming year. The Semiconductor Division had always held their annual sales meetings in or around Youngwood, PA because they could host plant tours and all the manufacturing and operations people could participate as needed. It was time to “think