by CEO, Wayne Flournoy.

I took a call on our main line a bit ago. The caller ID showed it was the engineer on a recent bid. Heidi Rupp had managed that bid, but she was out of the office.  I knew that our bid was the low price for our filter, but I also knew this was an evaluated bid which took into consideration many other factors than just the capital cost, including things such as experience, technical merit and operating costs.

He was calling because he finished his evaluation of all of the bids for the various components, some 50 or so bids in all. He wanted to wish us well in the final outcome, but his real reason for calling was to thank Heidi for being clear and comprehensive in her proposal. Of all the proposals he reviewed for all the equipment, only Heidi’s addressed every item and did it clearly.

He called to say thank you.

I told him how much I appreciated the call. I explained that as an equipment supplier, we rarely hear the simple thank you. His response was that as an engineer, he rarely does either, and as a result, he tries to make a point of saying thank you when it is warranted.

It made me think of the last time I called one of our suppliers out of the blue to thank them for a job well done. We all need to express appreciation for a job well done more often.

By the way, we did get the order.