2020 has been a year of substantial change around the world. Millions of businesses and billions of people have had to make major adjustments to their daily routines and Powermetrix is no exception. Fortunately, Powermetrix and its associated instrumentation product lines are classified as part of the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers as defined by the Department of Homeland Security. We are able (required, in fact) to continue to provide support to our aviation, nuclear power production, electricity distribution, and military customers. All of these industries are defined as critical infrastructure. Additionally, many of our customers (as part of keeping their supplier base open) notified Powermetrix that we are part of their critical infrastructure and asked us to maintain our usual level of operations to sustain their supply chain.
Meeting the obligations of this new reality has been a blessing and a challenge, to say the least. Powermetrix has been blessed to be able to meet its commitment to remain open, support our critical infrastructure, and maintain our high standards of customer satisfaction. Most of our support staff (product support, sales, marketing, and others) had to quickly adapt to a new set of challenges presented by a remote work environment. Thankfully, our remote workers were able to quickly adjust. Several even found their new work environment refreshing; we’ve noticed an increase in both productivity and morale for most of our newly-remote workers!
In an effort to maintain our commitment to customer satisfaction, Powermetrix is utilizing emerging technology and became an industry leader in remote training on our specialized testing equipment. Within days of the state-led closures, we were up and running with bi-weekly training webinars that have been viewed thousands of times by our customers. Our engineering department has made huge strides and introduced several new products to market within a virtual environment. We are offering product sales, support, training, and innovation on demand around the globe.
Our biggest challenge has been adapting our manufacturing operations to new and evolving local and state guidelines. While we always strive to meet all guidelines, we have three main goals during this time:
- Keeping our employees safe
- Fulfilling our own production standards
- Exceeding our customer’s expectations
Considering these goals, Powermetrix has implemented new cleaning, sanitizing, and distancing measures. In addition, we’ve updated illness policies, made new PPE recommendations, and provided ongoing education on what was known, recommended, and/or required. The majority of our employees told us that they are grateful to be able to continue to work, are relieved to feel safe at work, and are proud to continue our commitment to customer satisfaction. It is this commitment to customer satisfaction that made it so easy to adapt to updated guidelines on an ongoing basis. To put it simply: the entire Powermetrix Team remains committed to exceeding all expectations.
And now for the good news: our plan is working. Powermetrix has been able to keep our employees safe. All customer requests (both sales and service) have been met on time and on budget. All relevant guidelines and recommendations have been met or exceeded. Moving forward, you can expect an even greater commitment to customer satisfaction. Smart planning and forward thinking have revealed new avenues for communication and service and we pledge to continue to improve the customer experience.
We thank you for your continued support and look forward to a return to “normal” – whatever that means – in the coming days, weeks, and months. As always, stay healthy, keep the faith, remain hopeful, and thank you so much!