NEWS  

Gastonia Sheet Metal - submitted by Danny Funderburk

At Gastonia Sheet Metal, we’ve used the economic downturn to take an inventory of our existing customer base with the goal of identifying our “A” (best,) “B” (better,) and “C” (good) customers.  In a nutshell, we worked to construct a list of criteria for what makes an “A” customer for GSM. 

Our list includes all-important items like courtesy, mutual respect, professionalism, payment history and etc.  We then applied our criteria to each of our customers to assign an appropriate grade.  Finally, and most important, we determined we’d discipline ourselves to do the best job possible of investing our time and resources on the ones who’ve historically demonstrated the greatest ROI for GSM.  

We feel our strategy has worked well.  Like nearly everyone during these challenging times we’re “feeling the pinch.”  But, as of yet, we’ve not laid off, furloughed or cut hours for our workers. 

Furthermore, when presented the opportunity we’ve actually been in a position to hire talented people.  We’re working now to develop efficiencies that’ll help us improve our margins and strengthen our backlog.  When the economy improves we’ll be in a position to hit the ground running.