By Dan Sullivan, managing director, DoorCo.

As we’re all aware, the conflict in Iran has seriously impacted fuel costs and petroleum-based products world-wide. This in turn has affected delivery and material costs for the services and products we provide, forcing us to impose a temporary freight/ fuel surcharge.

We’re not alone in this situation, the surcharges are a direct result of notifications from our supply chain of the increased cost of freight shipping, haulage and materials, but what’s important in situations like this is not to jump on the band wagon.

Surcharges should be temporary and necessary only when costs are genuinely increased. We’ve heard rumblings of subtle price increases being applied by competitors, which by the very nature of a ‘price increase’ indicates they are long term.

They are also being added to long-standing currency surcharges, and this is not fair in an already challenging market.

At DoorCo, we do everything we can to avoid applying surcharges and when in play, review constantly, notifying customers in advance of any changes – up and down – for the upcoming month.

It’s naïve to think customers can’t look up materials pricing online and see the real impact of the war so asking for larger than required surcharges in difficult times will result in people voting with their feet and choosing new suppliers.

This comes back to the lessons learned from COVID about how we communicate and support our customers and not just when we’re facing challenges, but every day. Consistently acting and communicating with transparency has led to us to build a service that improves efficiency across the board, centred around people and technology.

Business-wide, we’re focused on our customers, considering daily how best we can serve them in manufacturing, warehousing and distribution, and even technology and marketing. Our customer-facing teams – customer services and sales – are intent on building long-lasting relationships, learning about our customers’ businesses to understand the products and multi-faceted business support we can offer to have a truly positive impact.

Of course, we’ve developed tech to support processes too. For example, our One Portal enables customers to help themselves to online order processing, live tracking and all their order history, as well as explore the knowledge hub and marketing assets for additional help.

But, there is still someone to speak to, in-person or on the phone, whenever needed. And this includes the directors, who remain hands-on in the business and still operate an open door policy for both employees and customers.

I’m astounded to hear that fabricators are still manually placing orders for goods with no available mechanism from their suppliers to receive electronic orders. Investing in these areas of your business, in this digital age – that in reality has been developing since the widespread use of the internet came into play in the early 2000s – shows a lack of innovation, investment and customer focus.

At DoorCo we have it covered: the customer-focused investment, the innovation, the technology and the people to help you onboard. Backed up by honest and transparent communications when things get tough.

Customers deserve to feel loved by their suppliers. Not for the feel-good factor or when times get tough like today – an effective supply chain leads to efficient delivery, happy customers and ultimately, increased profitability for everyone.

It’s what makes the world go round, and why it’s always been central to DoorCo. We’re working in partnership with our customers for the long-term, upfront and transparent with good news and bad, shaping our business around their needs.