The Luck of the Irish
We often write about The Yard Ramp Guy’s approach to our customers. How we conduct ourselves is, in our view, the single-most important component of our business plan.
A transaction is simply a transaction. A connection based on trust: that’s a connection.
Throughout the website you’ll see phrases like “The customer is king” and “Thank you for the opportunity to earn your business.” These are not clichés in our offices. Rather, they inform and drive our central value proposition.
Our manufacturers build ramps. The Yard Ramp Guy builds relationships.
On the site, we’ve devoted a page to our Custom Solutions Gallery. The very first one we posted involved a potential customer needing to get a customized golf cart, shaped like a football helmet, from Texas to Seattle. She’d require a yard ramp for only a couple of hours. We knew right away that a rental from us wouldn’t be cost effective for her.
Instead of simply saying no, we brainstormed up a solution—which she ended up using—of do-it-yourself materials that cost her mere hundreds, as opposed to thousands, of dollars, none of which went to our coffers. (Read about it HERE and HERE.)
And so, when a Dublin-based eCom fulfillment center reached us through our Contact Form, we knew there was another opportunity.
To be clear: That’s Dublin, Ireland, where all the potatoes come from, not Dublin, California, where Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost grew up.
The ramp specs were completely within our capabilities. It was the international cost of freight for the distance—3,100 miles at minimum—that became the prohibitive factor. Oh, and it was a rental, which might well have meant return freight.
We wrote her:
“We greatly appreciate your contacting us for your dock ramp need. Unfortunately, we only serve the Continental United States. As expensive as it is to transport a ramp here, I can only imagine what it might cost to float one across the pond.
“I did a little Internet surfing and found an Ireland-based company, linked below. Perhaps they can help you or recommend another company that can be of service.”
She responded:
“Thanks for your message. I’ll contact them! Thanks again.”
(We don’t want to read between the lines, though we like the exclamation mark. And her thanking us twice in the same message. And that she replied.)
As Stephen R. Covey wrote, “When the trust account is high, communication is easy, instant, and effective.”
