Customer Care Promotes Product Improvement
At Bridge Analyzers we pride ourselves on building relationships with our customers, and we do this by consistently taking care of them in whatever way they need. From redesigning analyzer components to meet particular customer specifications to developing new products to help them improve quality control best practices, we are always looking for new ways to help our customers achieve their goals.
There is a simple formula for building long-lasting relationships with customers that we have abided by since we started Bridge Analyzers: consistent, high quality care over time, or put more simply, “Care over Time.”
We don’t abide by this principle in order to get new clients or grow our business; we do it because that’s how we like to be treated. To us it’s just a simple golden rule of business.
While we don’t practice this principle for our own sake, we have found that one of the positive results of adhering to it is that our customers stay happy and our business grows.
Recently this was proven to us when our long time customer, Empire Packing Company, an affiliate of Ledbetter Foods, contacted us and ordered a number of our MAP Tri-Gas Analyzers for their new meat packaging plant in Mason, Ohio.
Before this order came in, Ledbetter had been using our Tri-Gas analyzers on a smaller scale in their meat processing and packaging plants throughout the country in Memphis, Tennessee; Olympia, Washington; and Denver, Colorado.
Over the years, as we worked with Ledbetter and began to better understand their Quality Control needs, we formed a strong relationship with their Quality Control team that allowed us to understand their QC needs in a deeper way and subsequently develop product solutions for them.
Customer Care in Action
Shortly after the Empire Packing QC team began using their new MAP Tri-Gas Analyzers they started getting unstable readings. After talking with Ledbetter’s head of QC we went down to Mason, Ohio to investigate and diagnose the problem further.
After arriving in Mason and spending time discussing the problem with their head of QC and testing product with our Tri-Gas analyzers on a few of their lines, we began to get a better understanding of the complete situation. This investigative groundwork helped us to eventually diagnose and solve the problem of the unstable readings.
One thing we noticed at the new Empire Packing facility was that it was consistently and uniformly colder than other meat processing facilities in which our Tri-Gas analyzers are used. At first we didn’t think too much of this fact, we simply calibrated the analyzers and made sure that all of the QC technician staff understood how to confirm the analyzer’s calibration and use the analyzers properly. After we did this, we were still getting unstable readings, which is when we began to think that the colder temperature of the facility was a more decisive factor than we thought at first.
Our first attempt at remedying the situation was to place the O2 sensor of our Tri-Gas analyzer inside the analyzer body. Prior to this change, the O2 sensor had always been on the outside of the analyzer body. We made this change in order that the O2 sensor would have more thermal stability and would not have to take extra time coming to its proper, stable temperature when testing in the processing plant.
At first this change was efficacious, but as time went on it proved to be ineffective over the course of a complete workday. This is when we began to consider the O2 sensitivity of our sensor as another important factor that might be contributing to the unstable readings. With the O2 sensor inside the analyzer body we were getting good readings for a period of time, then the readings would become unstable after three or four hours. After expanded internal testing of the O2 sensor as well as subsequent visits to Empire Packing to do more investigative field work, it became clear that the O2 sensor we were using did not have enough stability over time in a low oxygen environment. Because of this, we switched our former O2 sensor— stable from 0.5% to 100% oxygen— to a new O2 sensor that was stable and accurate from 0% to 100% oxygen environments.
After changing to a more stable O2 sensor at very low oxygen levels and placing it into the body of the analyzer, the readings Empire Packing were getting stabilized and the problem was solved. We have also implemented this design change into all of our new MAP meat Tri-Gas analyzers and all units returned to the Bridge factory for annual calibration and service.
While we never like our customers to have problems with our product, most often these problems are very beneficial to us and our customers as they force us to develop new product solutions that end up benefiting our customers. As our customers’ processes have become more stringent and complex, we have been required to develop, re-design, and improve our products to meet their needs. At Bridge Analyzers our commitment to caring for our customers (Care over Time) is what pushes us forward and drives us to develop improved products and solutions for our customers.