As we continue growing, part of that is hiring new people to help us facilitate said growth.
Hiring new people is exciting and, well, ...hard. Interviewing people is sometimes easy in the fact that you can tell who will and won't fit right away, however sometimes everyone sounds good and you have to decide between some really great people. Sometimes you get it wrong and the good person turns out to not be so great and you have to start over. But with each new start gives us opportunities to meet just the right person and sometimes you cannot decide between two and hire them both... uh, budget meeting!
Being a business owner comes with a lot of leaps of faith and more just do it and let's find out - otherwise we may never know. Business comes about by lots of failures, but that's how we learn. We can now know better next time.... I call it calculated risk. It has to be done in order to grow.
We could not grow and stay the same.
We could have the same-same year after year.
We could- not innovate.
We could be happy with the status quo.
We could stay small.
We could keep the same designs.
We could just settle for a soup can hub.
We could settle for heavy wheels.
We could settle for warped steel blanks.
We could settle for the heavy bolts... accessories.... etc.
We could settle for subpar polish and finish.
We could settle on just as good as last year.
But WE won't settle for anything less than the best.
We keep on innovating, keep on trying, keep on looking and improving constantly.... and as a result, we continuously shatter the goals we have set for ourselves, year after year, proving that striving for the best produces the best.
We have implemented a great tracking system for our warranties, this allows us to better break down the reasons for returns that come in so we can address each topic to reduce the number of returns altogether. An RGA (return good authorization) number is issued and a series of questions need to be answered by the customer, then once we receive the parts and inspect them we can add our findings, allowing an easier categorizing of the information. When we check the pulse of returns, then we get a good reflection of our efforts.
We do quarterly reviews of all warranties... we weed out the returns for "ordered the wrong parts" or we "shipped the wrong parts", those are the most common...but we don't dismiss those, there is value there. Sometimes a tiny tweak in our system can correct these things.
Talking through the chain of command for pulling, building, double checking, packaging, and shipping our products allows us to pinpoint the issue and make corrections. We can then adjust the educational information we make available on our website and ordering tools. In addition, we focus our marketing efforts to address the same educational information.
The same process is done for the mechanical issues, color complaints, mis installations, and bad finishes. We look internally to see what we can do to reduce errors, we implement changes as needed, and educate our customers.