[TenTec] Ten Tec Service / How I am mishandling customer relations and a specicial thank you to K5TN

[Dave Ryan]

Mike,
    Thanks for taking this bull by the horns and taking a pragmatic approach to rebuilding a great US brand.

You asked:  '... How can I improve customer service now?...'

As a simple measure you could set up an auto reply message on both the Sales and Service email addresses that let's folks know that their emails were in fact received but during the rebuild period the Ten Tec team cannot personally respond to each email as it arrives.  Basically make it clear that TT is alive and well just as you have on this reflector, let folks know their email didn't fall into a black hole, ask for some patience as you retool the operation and let folks know what requests will be handled in a timely manner (e.g. rig service requests) and which will be handled as the company returns to daily commercial operations (e.g. new rig sales and replacement parts sales). 

IMHO, I think a lot of the frustration being expressed here and on some of the ham forums is based on folks getting no response to multiple attempts to contact Ten Tec.  Some folks will interpret that lack of company response in the worst possible way which feeds the rumor mill.  If you can head this off at the pass with some simple auto reply emails that express some of what you've shared here that lets folks trying to contact the company know that the rebuild is happening and that their requests did in fact reach you, even if you can't act on all of them immediately, then you may both communicate an important and positive message and shut down some of the negative rumor mill.  It only takes a few minutes to set up an email auto reply message, seems like it would be a useful tool to buy time and to build customer confidence.

Thanks again, your efforts are appreciated,
73
Dave
K7TRF

-----Original Message-----
From: TenTec [mailto:tentec-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Mike Dishop via TenTec
Sent: Sunday, March 5, 2017 4:21 AM
To: Discussion of Ten-Tec Equipment <tentec at contesting.com>
Cc: Mike Dishop <n8wff at yahoo.com>
Subject: [TenTec] Ten Tec Service / How I am mishandling customer relations and a specicial thank you to K5TN

 A couple of days ago I made a post about being part of the solution rather than part of the problem and how anyone could step up and make a difference.  Out of the 400+ thousand hams, one person took me seriously and sent me a check to help support Ten Tec.  That gentleman's call is K5TN and to you sir, THANK YOU from the top and bottom of my heart.  I'm not cashing your check and will send it back, but of everyone in the world who reads these forums, YOU put your money where your mouth is.  It is nice to know that our company has one absolutely true friend and supporter. It is nice to know that ONE person really wants to be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Thank you sir.

OK, lets talk CUSTOMER SERVICE

When I was quite a bit younger, I worked for a huge conglomerate that shut down the R&D department that with 5 people had driven more innovative features that made the company products sell than any other branch of the operation, and they shut it down.  I questioned the wisdom of eliminating this department and the talented team that really delivered.  My boss explained to me that what good was all the future development in the world if the company had to shut down and go out of business today?   I learned a lesson here that I want to share with you.  What good is all the customer relations in the world if the company has to close?

 I've explained more than one time what I'm doing and why again and again. Despite this I am repeatedly forced to spend my valuable time on this. Why?

I've explained why you can't talk to service.  I've posted photos of our new PCB assembly facility and we are still servicing every radio we have made if we can get the parts.  It costs me a lot of money to keep Ten Tec open each month.  The only way I can do that is to take care of the commercial customers FIRST.  They are the reason the company is open.  Fortunately, that cash flow is allowing me to reintroduce the other products one at a time.  The Eagle is next. Right or wrong, expensive or not expensive, there are people who want to buy Ten Tecs and that is a good radio.  It isn't about what you can buy from Japan, China or elsewhere. It is about buying what you want.  Ford trucks are generally cheaper than Chevy trucks.  So why do people buy Chevrolet trucks?  The truck is easier to work on for one.  The drivetrain is more robust.  At the same time some say the Ford has a stronger frame.  If you don't buy a car based on the decision of price only, why should you buy a radio?  You guys keep your radios longer than you keep your cars usually, and you spend as much time or more using your radio than you do driving, so shouldn't you buy WHAT YOU WANT and not worry so much about if the Eagle is 1600-1700 as compared to an Icom 7300 at 1300?  My goodness if you pimp out a K2 and make it do everything an Eagle does you spend 2300 dollars!  And the K2 is far below the Eagle on the Sherwood chart!  Should they quit offering the K2 or lower their price?  Doesn't the better performing Eagle deserve to sell for at least as much?  After all they are both designed and made in America.  Should all the K2 owners dump them and buy Eagles because the Eagle is less expensive?

Someone said our customer service was "sub par".  Robert went into full retirement end of last month. I'm sure he appreciated that comment.  It probably will be worse than it was now that he is gone until I do something else.

Ten Tec is wholly owned by me sinve January 1 2016.  To have sub par customer service I would have had to have sold you a radio.  To whom have I sold a radio?  What do I owe you?  Fact: I am repairing the radios that the other people sold you.  I don't owe you anything. I have no obligation to you to answer your email you or sell you my parts.  I'm supporting you because we are working on a new transceiver so that all the infrastructure will be there to continue on when it is ready. Maybe at that time we will have the cash flow supported by new sales to support the expensive and free customer service you want.  

The company isn't going to close as long as our expenses do not exceed our revenue. Think about that.  this is the coldest and hardest fact of business that has to supersede EVERYTHING else and all discussions of if I am doing a good job or if customer service is good or not good. Anyone who thinks anything other than this most basic tenant of business is a fool.  I'm not going to spend money I don't have. So if you KEEP sending in your radios for repair (PLEASE EVERY BIT HELPS) and keep buying parts from us (PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH THE EMAIL) and keep ordering the products that we do have (PLEASE WE DO WANT YOUR BUSINESS) then we can get this thing back on track.  Look people I'm doing this all by myself. I need time.  We have moved in 12 calendar months from having stacks of unrepaired radios from RKR and no parts to build radios and no machinery to build them with to now having maybe a back log of 10-20 radios at any given time and usually nothing over thirty days, having moved into a cost effective and efficient facility in TN,  setting up the new surface mount building in OH where we built THOUSANDS of boards in house last year for TEN TEC, and delivered HUNDREDS of new radios to customers, in addition to R&D on a new transceiver, all in one year.  ONE YEAR. What did YOU do in your last year?  

How can I improve customer service now?  The next thing I am working on short term is our TEN TEC web store.  I'm learning a little bit about how to do this myself. I even was able to post two news articles over on the Alpha RF Systems site. If you go there and click on the NEWS tab you can see my two articles, the first about the amps we are building in Colorado and the next about the SMD assembly facility in Ohio. I asked Boyd to take photos about the final assembly, repair and alignment center in Tennessee and when he gets those to me I will make a similar article for you to see on the TT website.  

So what I am going to do next is make it so we can send repair invoices as a email to you where you can log in to your web cart, buy the repair and pay for it by checking out securely with your credit card.  We have been testing this on the Alpha site for 4 months and it is working great!  I'm also going to put what products we have like microphone cords, microphones, speech processors, etc and it will show real time inventory of units in stock!  Next I will try to put dial string and PTO kits and batteries and little common items like that in the store and I hope this will stop the personal emails for dial strings.  

Now of course the month I'm going to spend doing this is going to delay the launch of every other product by one month but who cares about that?  We will have better customer service!  Before I get this done I have to work on the corporate tax return due this month. 

A special thank you to those of you who are patient, understanding, and support my efforts in this herculean task.  Rick, Bob, Ron, and the rest of you who are regular contributors and who try to help people understand what we are doing -  I really appreciate it. 

To those of you who are being critical you are not criticizing Ten Tec. You are criticizing me and I take it personally.  I didn't make this mess or gut the company. I'm the guy keeping it alive and putting it back on track.  What right at all do you have to criticize me?  Do I come in to your house and criticize how you live your life, how you raise your kids, or judge you for why your wife left you?  If I did that you would say to me "What in the heck do you know about me or my life or my house?"   You'd tell me "There are perfectly valid reasons for the choices I made".  So why do I deserve to be treated differently?  

If you don't like what I'm doing, if you can't say something nice, then why not just keep your mouth shut?  What business is it of yours?  If you bought a transceiver from RKR or RFC you didn't buy it from me. If you have a beef, have your beef with them, not me.   Are you upset that I bought the assets of what was left?   I'm sick and tired  of reading this drivel over and over again in our forum.  I am now going to formally appeal to the moderators and owners that whenever this negative stuff is posted in the future that you just delete it and don't even send it out.  I believe I speak for us ALL that it is counter productive and that we are ALL tired of hearing that the sky is falling!  I started this journey a year ago October and TEN TEC is still here, radios are being repaired in a timely manner and radios are going out the door. When I respond to this stuff I am wasting my time and it is just another lost hour that a new radio isn't designed. You may not have anything better to do but I do.

I need those of you  who support TEN TEC to step up and start ripping to shreds these jerks on eham and QRZ who raise this crap every three months?  People who spread lies and negativity damage the company and jeopardize people's jobs. When somebody starts grinding their axe it is just like a little duck farting under water, but when I respond and defend myself I get criticized and told I should handle things this way or that way. It doesn't matter what I say, there is criticism.  So I generally just don't say anything at all, and then I'm criticized for being non responsive.  I loose no matter what I do.     I unloaded on somebody who was spreading out and out libel and then was told that customers are going to question if I have the sanity to run a company and don't want to buy from me!  

I know my own course.  I know what I have to do. I know what I can do with what I have to work with. I'm going to do what I have to do and that is the way it is until something changes.  It is going to take as long as it takes me. All the criticism in the world isn't going to change things. The only thing that is going to change things is money. Time is money. It takes time to make money. As I make money I do what I can do to bring TEN TEC back into the amateur market one step at a time. 

Just remember that every disparaging and negative remark delays the introduction of a new product by a day.  If you get ripped to shreds on Monday, how good are you at YOUR job the rest of the day?  You know what my problem is?  I can't walk off the job.  I have people with families who depend on me.  Good people who are hams just like you.  Those are the people you hurt when you spout your hate, negativity, jealousy or just stupid opinion for whatever reason or motivation you have.  I don't want to hear it any more.  No one here on the forum wants to hear it. This needs to stop and it needs to stop immediately.


73 DE N8WFF 






 
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