Some managers would consider this a tough call, but not me. 

During the busy season, keeping up with the delivery schedule is one of the toughest challenges for any LBM dealer. Like most companies, we expect good judgment from our drivers. It’s a true tightrope walk to provide great personal service while maintaining a sense of urgency fit for a bomb squad. 

Phil was one of our senior drivers; he spent a lot of time behind the wheel of a boom truck. Years ago, he was delivering a load of roof shingles when he ran into Dick, the project manager for the development. Dick was not a happy camper. 

“At least something’s going right today,” he hollered as Phil raised the last pallet up to the roof. 

“Why, what’s going on?” asked Phil. 

“Stupid truss company delivered a load to the wrong lot,” replied Dick. “Seems like you guys are the only supplier I have who bothers to read the info on the delivery ticket. You’re doing a good job; keep it up.” 

Dick went off to hunt down the framing crew to tell them they’d have to cool their heels for a couple of days. Nine times out of ten, that would be the end of the story. 

It wasn’t our problem; in fact, we bid on those roof trusses and lost to an out-of-the-area supplier who undercut us by about 10%. Most drivers in Phil’s situation would have finished up and headed back for the next load. They probably would have relished the compliment Dick gave and maybe, just maybe, would have remembered to alert the salesperson that Dick might be more receptive to our truss quote next time. 

Not Phil. As soon as he had the roof shingles loaded, he locked down his boom and went off to find Dick. He spotted him five lots down, talking to an obviously unhappy lead framer. 

“The truck was gone before I got here this morning,” Dick told him. “There’s nothing I can do now. The paperwork said Lot 65 clear as day, and they dropped the trusses at Lot 56. Unbelievable! It screws up me and the framer, but the truss company is 50 miles away and won’t be back this way until Friday.” 

Phil thought to himself since the truss company messed up … they should get their rear in gear and get back here to fix it. That’s certainly what we would have done if it were our mistake.  

Instead, Phil said to Dick, “Why not just move the trusses where you need them?” Dick replied, “Yeah, with what?” “How about my boom truck?” said Phil.  

Phil spent the next 45 minutes hauling trusses from Lot 56 to Lot 65, exactly where the framers wanted them. Dick was ecstatic, as were the framing crew. 

But as tight as our delivery schedule was, Phil’s generosity threw the afternoon out of whack. We wound up paying overtime to get us back on track. 

That’s a problem for some managers. There’s no line on a productivity tracking sheet for unscheduled side trips, even for a good cause. While no one could fault Phil’s service ethic and willingness to help one of our better customers, the fact was he cost us time and money. Not to mention, a very frustrated shipper.  

However, thanks to Phil’s quick thinking, Dick started buying all his trusses from us. Which more than made up for the extra money we spent that day. 

We measured productivity as closely as anyone, but it’s tough to measure the overall value of people like Phil providing legendary customer service. I’ll take the intangible stuff any day. 

And, if I ever needed a line item for things like that, I would’ve put it under marketing, in a subaccount called “Things That Money Can’t Buy.” 

Mike McDole has 40+ years of actual LBM experience, including being SVP of a large regional pro-dealer, and is the principal of Firing Line LBM Advisors. He’s also partners with Greg Brooks of the Executive Council on Construction Supply and his LMS. Mike can be reached at 774.372.1367 or Mike@FiringLineLBM.com.