Belcorp Inc "The Cost of Complaints"

A good manufacturer or supplier does everything possible to achieve perfection, but in the real world, it doesn't always happen. "Making it right" is a major focus of every responsible company.

The thing that keeps company managers awake at night is the possibility that something may go wrong in their process that results in sub-standard product being sold and then results in breaking down, failure, customer sickness, injury or a product recall. If you are "fortunate" enough (not the best word !) to receive an actual complaint, depending on your sales volume, you might expect :

- for every "nuisance" complaint, there may be 50,000 similar incidents. (ex: someone says your packages are hard to open)

- for every health concern complaint, there may be 1,000 more not reported.(ex: "my child got an upset stomach after eating your product")

- for every actual injury complaint, there may be 2 more unreported. (But legal action may be over the horizon!)

I used the word "fortunate" because you actually heard about a specific complaint. The real fear is from the realization that many consumers will just become frustrated or unhappy with your products and go quietly to another competitor and never use you again ! Based on the seriousness of the complaint, a customer is not likely to buy your product or brand again in the following estimated percentage of probability.

* Perceived poor value - 2% loss

* Health concern - 10% loss

* Injury concern - 25% loss

* Actual reported injury - 50% loss.

There is a final huge cost implication to consider. A product recall can be a catastrophic loss to any manufacturer. Remember the Tylenol poisoning case in 1982 ? This led to the new tamper-resistant packaging standards. Recall volume was 31 million bottles. The Firestone tire recall in 2000 resulted in over 7 million tires being replaced and costs were close to 2 billion dollars ! While these are the extreme and most widely publicized cases, it demonstrates why no one wants this outcome !

Simply put - the best product inspection available is the cornerstone of any manufacturing operation. Of course we are presenting this to you to offer one of the leading x-ray detection system companies on the market today. Smiths Detection - Commercial Safety and Security Group is a leader in high speed check weighing and x-ray detection equipment. Smiths, with 1500 systems installed worldwide, has the largest global base of installations for product inspection. We would welcome your inquiries concerning a review of your requirements for inspection and detection procedures. Contact us at : www.belcorpinc.com .