Tony Palmer, Edgetech’s Head of Sales, argues that while products are extremely important, it takes excellence across the board to make a truly great spacer supplier.
For thirty years, Edgetech has been at the forefront of spacer technology.
We’ve been continually investing, evolving and striving to push the boundaries of what high-performance IGUs can achieve.
It’s a legacy we’re extremely proud of. Today, a third of British IGUs are made with Edgetech products, and over two million miles of Edgetech spacer have been fitted around the world.
But despite those achievements, we’ve always known that great products alone aren’t enough to make an exceptional spacer supplier.
They’re obviously extremely important – and we have one of the most versatile and extensive ranges in the world, comprising rigid and flexible spacers suitable for anything from everyday residential projects to the most ambitious commercial developments.
We also offer a wealth of ancillaries like hot melt, edge keys, PIB and more.
But just as much as the outstanding products, we think that it’s our constant commitment to improving customer service that sees leading IGU manufacturers continue to work with us year after year.
Customers at the centre
For years now, putting customers at the centre hasn’t just been an airy aspiration, but a central part of our strategy as a business – and one of the key measures we use to judge our success.
In the last couple of years, that’s seen us comprehensively restructure our customer-facing teams, as we take a new, more joined-up approach to meeting and exceeding our customers’ expectations.
That’s resulted in a unified Customer Fulfilment Team which brings together expertise from right across the business to ensure we’re offering outstanding service from order right through to final delivery.
Every quarter, our Voice of the Customer survey goes out to a randomly selected cross-section of the businesses who work with us, and asks them what’s working, what isn’t, and how we can improve.
That regular feedback is a vital way of making sure we’re meeting our customers’ ever-changing needs, and often provides the inspiration for new developments in products and service.
At the height of the first national coronavirus lockdown last year, for example, we asked our customers how they wanted us to keep in touch – did they want socially-distanced meetings, telephone calls, Zoom meetings, or us to take another approach entirely.
Their responses indicated they were happy to switch to more remote forms of communication during the pandemic – which in turn led to us developing a number of digital tools to help support them from afar, like instructional videos to assist with product testing, for instance.
A safe pair of hands
When we ask our customers why they work with Edgetech, one very common answer is that they see us as a ‘safe pair of hands’.
We’ve been around for decades. Our products have been extensively tried and tested all over the world – and that means they have a level of confidence in us that they don’t have in other suppliers.
They also cite the stability that comes from us being part of the global building product powerhouse Quanex – the hugely respected billion-dollar group that’s listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The Quanex relationship doesn’t just bring financial security – it gives us access to incredible expertise from all over the world, including from Ohio’s University of Akron, which is renowned for its polymer research and has close, longstanding links with the group.
In uncertain times like these, being part of Quanex also allows us to guarantee continuity of supply. We benefit from not one but three world-class manufacturing facilities – in Coventry, Ohio and Heinsberg, Germany – meaning that disruption in one area doesn’t affect our ability to keep serving our customers.
Challenging the norm
But despite all this, we’re not complacent.
We’re constantly on the lookout for ways to improve our products, and help our customers ramp up their businesses.
We’re passionate about production efficiency, process simplification, best performance and value for money – and we’ve always challenged the norm.
We’ll never stop looking for ways to give our customers an edge over the competition – and if you’d like to learn more about how we can help your business thrive, don’t hesitate to get in touch by calling 02476 639931 or emailing ukenquiries@edgetechig.com.
