Good News - Better News (True Story)

I work for a company that connects paper mills and manufacturers to sell rolls of paper - LARGE rolls. We ensure that the paper gets to the customer on time in good condition. This doesn't always go as planned.

Recently, we had numerous issues on one particular order. First, the mill shipped rolls with a much smaller outside diameter than requested. Then they shipped only 35,000 pounds (15,900 kg) instead of the requested 44,000 pounds (20,000 kg). We only were alerted to this when the shipping container was en route from Europe to the eastern US seaboard. Ooops!

After we altered the customer to the issues, they notified us that they needed the paper sooner than anticipated. One cannot just ask the cargo ship to turn around so we can use air freight.

Our joy that the ship arrived at port three days early ended abruptly when we learned that US Customs had randomly chosen our container for a closer inspection. One cannot hurry a customs inspector without making the process even longer. So we had to wait again and update an irate customer daily, who at this point purchased paper from our competitor to meet their production schedule.

Once Customs released the paper, we anticipated that the Nashville, Tennessee customer would have the paper in a few days. However, instead of sending it by truck, the mill's transportation department shipped it intermodal, which means by railroad THEN by truck. The standard ETA for US rail transit is "it gets there when it gets there."

To add to the dilemma, the train was delayed twice, once for power outage somewhere en route and a two-day delay in Georgia. At this point, our customer support staff were practically drawing straws each morning to see who would tell the customer the bad news for the day.

The customer had purchased a SECOND supply from our competitor by the time the container arrived at the Huntsville, Alabama intermodal facility. We had a truck waiting there; we were taking no chances now! The rail arrived at noon on Friday (over 12 hours after the ETA provided Thursday morning). At which point, our customer informs us that they do not take any deliveries after 2:00 pm, and they are a two and a half hours drive from the intermodal facility. So the paper delivery will FINALLY be Monday morning.

Monday morning, we get an email from the customer: they cannot unload the container. The inside clearance of the cargo container is 7-1/2 feet (2.3 meters); the mast on their clamp truck reached 8-1/2 feet (2.6 meters). And because our paper rolls were not on pallets and weighed 1,450 pounds (657 kg) each, there was no other way to move these rolls.

The customer insisted that they needed this paper for Wednesday morning's production run--no more excuses. We needed to find a solution-FAST!

We contacted dozens of warehouses in the Nashville area to see if we can get one to cross-dock (unload and reload into a different truck), but it seems that clamp trucks are a rarity. We found one -- with a five week backlog and no chance of getting to our rolls.

Then we came up with the brilliant idea to contact manufacturing companies that use these large rolls and have the appropriate-sized clamp truck. One of our larger customers in Louisville, Kentucky came to the rescue. Not only did they have the smaller sized clamp truck, they would be happy to cross-dock it for us (even though the paper was going to their competitor) for FREE! In heartfelt gratitude, we offered to treat the Shipping/Receiving Department to pizza.

At 2:00 pm we sent the intermodal truck ahead to Louisville to be unloaded and spent the remainder of Monday trying to find a truck to ship the paper from Louisville back to Nashville. Getting a truck on short order in the US is itself a challenge. By 4:30pm, we still didn't have a solution.

That was when we were told the truck was still parked in Nashville. Apparently, the customer was working on their own solution. When the driver started to pull away, the Receiving Manager ran out and asked the truck to wait. They had rented a smaller clamp truck that would arrive that evening.

By Tuesday morning, we had a redelivery truck on standby and the Louisville customer ready and waiting to cross-dock, but the Nashville customer was able to unload the paper with the rental. So I called our Louisville customer, "I have good news and I have better news. The good news is that they unloaded the rolls so you do not need to cross-dock for us. The better news, is because of your generous offer, we're sending you the pizza anyway."

When they argued that the pizza was not necessary as they didn't do anything, I understood why it was necessary as the words spilled out of my mouth: "It's not whether you did the work or not, it's because you offered to do it for us, even when it helped a competitor, for free. And it's that kind of generosity that we sincerely appreciate."

I hope and pray we see more cases of this generosity in the world -- from individuals and from businesses. The bottom line isn't the only mark of a great company.