Dan Beaulieu: It’s All About the Customer Experience

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Dan Beaulieu is an industry expert in sales and marketing who understands the unique dynamics of working in both B2B and B2C efforts. Through his work with companies across the electronics manufacturing industry, Dan advocates for businesses to always deliver a top-notch customer experience. Customer experience may not stop world wars—or might it? Read on to get a perspective that only Dan Beaulieu can deliver.

Nolan Johnson: Dan, you have such a strong presence and voice in our industry. For example, you have written more than 1,000 columns, most especially on the topics of sales, marketing, and customer service; that’s a huge body of knowledge. What is the current state of customer service in the electronics manufacturing industry?

Dan Beaulieu: I've spent a lot of time studying this topic lately, and my sense is we're about to turn the corner on it. I recently wrote a column about the customer experience. I’ve found that the higher the technology a company has, the worse its customer service is. Just because they do cutting-edge work, they seem to think they have a pass on good customer service.

Lately, I’ve been working with a couple of companies on developing that great customer experience because, when it comes to customer service, we're not competing with each other. We're competing with the best in any industry: Nordstrom, Apple, L.L. Bean, and so forth. They do better, and so can we.

My focus is to bring the customer to the table and give them the best experience. Yes, focus on the technology, but it’s just as much about attitude and passion. You want to know one of my pet peeves? It’s phone trees. How much does it really cost to have someone just answer the phone when they call your company? Why are you impeding me from the minute I call you? Customer service is more important than ever; it's a new frontier.

Johnson: You’re using examples that would be considered B2C, retail businesses. I'm sure people reading this right are thinking, “We're in business to business, so customer service is different.” Is that true?

Beaulieu: Great question. Why do we behave like we’re the DMV just because it's business to business? New generations are not interested in B2B; that was our generation. We’re now working with industry professionals who want an experience: They want to feel a certain way when dealing with a company. Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” That is the essence of customer service. It is a tangible, measurable result.

For example, I often advise that relationships are forged when solving problems with your customers. If you have a debate about whose fault it was when a board wasn’t built to spec, for example, and you don’t take responsibility, that's bad business. Instead, see that the board failed and tell them you want to work together to figure out what happened. Don’t waste time pointing fingers.

When we don't have a product, customer service and our processes are our product. How we make you feel can be as important as the end product.

Johnson: I once had a mentor who taught me about building trust, that it starts with some relationship tension in the form of a problem. You work together to solve that problem, and that raises the trust level. Now you're at a higher level, where the next problem is usually more complex. Solving that one leads to even greater trust; each time you work together to solve a problem, you go higher up the ladder and deepen that business relationship.

Beaulieu: When you're building a difficult product, you have an opportunity to work side by side and develop a relationship with the customer. For example, when Martin Marietta was building the LANTIRN navigation and targeting system—a satellite telescope in space so precise it could identify the date on a dime on the ground—he practically lived in our facility while we developed boards that hadn't been done before. It created an unbelievable relationship. A few years later, when Martin would show up, it always felt like a reunion. Martin and the company had been friends for many years, and it was an advantage when the next Martin Marietta request for quote came up. That's a great personal differentiator right there. They weren't about to find somebody new just because our price was 30% higher. We were their guys, plain and simple.

Johnson: You’ve talked about that customer experience for the new generation, but it sounds like it’s always been important.

Beaulieu: People love experiences. When I was young, with my long hair and everything, I worked at Rockwell. My friends told me, “You're selling out; you're going to work for the man.” But when I went to work there, I realized, “Hey, the man's a pretty good guy. He's reinventing the world.”

I had so many mentors who took me under their wing. I was in my 20s, and they were in their 40s. They taught me the business because at the time, I didn’t understand the technology. I learned so much from them.

Now, I feel like we've lost two or three generations. But I see all this enthusiasm from a younger generation, and it’s something I haven’t seen in years. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to bring the passion back.

Johnson: What’s the answer, Dan? How do we rekindle that kind of passion, especially with early-career professionals who will be ready to step in and take over?

Beaulieu: We need to feel we're doing something that matters. When you go into a circuit board shop, the walls should be lined with their customers’ products. We're working on Teslas, SpaceX, and DaVinci gadgets in the operating room. We must create the sense that we work on stuff that matters. We had that feeling in the 1960s with the space program. When Kennedy said we would go to the moon, all these companies worked together toward that goal. We need that feeling again.

People want to know they work somewhere important, for a company that cares about them. I advocate for companies to host open houses for families. A family bread earner is an important person. A child asks, “Where do you go every day, Mom and Dad?” We want the parents to say, “Come on, I'll show you. I'm really proud of what we do. We're having an open house on Saturday, and I'm going to show you what I do all day long.”

In a nutshell, make it matter. We really do build exciting stuff.

Next, show them the future. A high school graduate working in customer service in our industry makes more than the starting salary of a teacher in my home state of Maine—and without the student debt. There’s a great financial and career trajectory, but it’s not just about the money. You may start in customer service, but we’re so desperate for passion and ambition that, if you keep your nose clean, you could be supervising in two years, a manager in three, and within five years, be a PCB engineer.

Johnson: Global sourcing plays a big part in our current business dynamics. What's your perspective on global sourcing?

Beaulieu: I follow Thomas Friedman, an economist for The New York Times, who wrote a book called “The Earth is Flat.” It turns out, he was kind of wrong. He said there wouldn’t be wars between two countries that have McDonald's, meaning that through global commerce, we would prefer to work together than fight. Of course, that theory was disproved with Ukraine, but I still believe that we're being very short-sighted when we let the politicians dictate who we do or don’t like.

Now, I work with a company doing global sourcing. When you go somewhere like China, Japan, or Vietnam, for example, you realize they’re people just like you and me—just wanting to improve their lives. In China, the people who came from the farms to the factories don't want to fight with us. They want to do business with us, and that sentiment will overcome everything.

Vietnam is really opening up. The same is happening in Thailand and India. Global sourcing is the way of the world. Back when Chrysler’s Lee Iacocca told us, “You gotta buy American,” I went and bought a Chrysler New Yorker, which, funny enough, had a Mitsubishi engine from Japan and was built in Canada. It’s different now.

So, let’s just make it work. That's what I believe about global sourcing. I know it's not perfect, but don’t forget: China didn’t come here and steal our business; we handed it to them. I'll say it, and it's not hyperbole: Global sourcing will eventually lead to world peace. I don’t know if it will be in our lifetime, but I know it will happen because when we work face-to-face, it's hard to throw bombs at each other.

Johnson: Dan, thanks so much for sharing your insight.

Beaulieu: Absolutely.