Author: GAWDA MEDIA

By Paul Bernier The “Customer Experience,” or “CX,” has been labeled by many as the new marketing battlefield.  What is CX?  It’s your customers’ perception of how they were treated and how they feel about their experience with your business. In other words, if a customer likes you and feels he or she was treated well during the business transaction, that person will not only become a loyal customer, but also is likely to recommend your business to others. As we all know, word-of-mouth testimonials and personal endorsements are of huge value to businesses. It’s important to understand that CX…

By Kelly Bladow From the driver’s seat to the dock, and whether you’re a gas producer, hardgoods retailer or product manufacturer, there’s no getting away from the necessity of putting safety first in all aspects of welding supplies and gases distribution industry operations.  If you haven’t already established a complete safety program within your company, you may feel that it’s a daunting thing to do. I’m happy to say that putting such a program in place is fairly simple – at least in obtaining the materials for it and in what’s involved in implementation. The trick to getting a safety…

By Rich Craig The Gases and Welding Distributors Association (GAWDA) and the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) both work to promote safety and safe operations in the welding and gases industry.  We do this to ensure we are protecting the public, our employees and our facilities from the inherent hazards of our industry.  Every aspect of our industry requires respect for the products and related equipment: the containers themselves are heavy and contain gas stored at high pressures and the products present a range of hazards, including extreme cold, flammability, toxicity and asphyxiation. Delivering these products to our customers also has…

By Richard P. Schweitzer, ESQ. Sometimes distributors say they cannot afford the cost of a safety compliance program, or they defer sending employees to training programs because of the expense. Some owners do not see safety as necessary to improving the company’s bottom line – saying that if it does not generate revenue or reduce costs, they are not interested. Others appreciate the value of safety programs but still view safety as a cost item to be minimized. This is backward thinking. Safety programs are means to preserve revenue. I heard one GAWDA distributor complain that his company was disqualified…

By Charles McChesney Safety equipment is ubiquitous in the gases and welding industry. It is integrated into the operations of every fill plant, every warehouse and in every cylinder and cryogenic vessel. From pressure release valves to high-visibility gauges to tamper-proof fittings, the industry has developed a plethora of equipment to keep workers and customers safer. Personal protection equipment, worn and used by welders and other workers, is a part of that, and it’s a huge market on its own. Research published last year by Global Market Insights, Inc. found that Americans across all markets spent $12.5 billion on personal protective…

By Charles McChesney Safety is at the center of the Gases and Welding Distributors Association’s existence. The Association’s mission statement literally puts safety first – “The GAWDA mission is to promote the safe operation and economic vitality of distributors of industrial gases and related welding equipment and supplies” – and safety is woven throughout its operations. “You can replace equipment. You can replace trucks. You can replace cylinders. You can’t replace a human. And that’s actually the only way you should look at it,” says Jim Herring, chair of the GAWDA Safety Committee and vice president of Saf T Cart. …

By Jeremy Miller The five best words you can hear a customer say are, “that’s interesting. Tell me more.” When you get a customer to say, “that’s interesting. Tell me more,” you’ve caught their attention. They’re listening and responding to you. They’re having a conversation. This is powerful, because a conversation is a two-way dialogue to share ideas and opinions. Every company has an opportunity to engage its customers in conversation, but few do. They’re too busy marketing and selling to slow down to have a dialogue. But in a world of endless competition, having a conversation is one of the…

By Mike Hill Ever wonder how much – or how little – your company’s employees are focused and engaged in what they do on the job? There’s a significant cost to employee disengagement. According to a 2016 Gallup survey, 68 percent of employees in the U.S. work force is disengaged from their jobs. That means almost seven out of 10 of your co-workers (or, for managers, your employees) are disengaged. How’s that for an eye-opener? What’s the cause of employee disengagement?  One of the issues that prompts disengagement is if employees feel they are not being compensated fairly. Some employees…

By Graeme Roberts If a business calls, or we hear about it, we Google it. If we can’t find it immediately — near the top of the first page — that’s a big red flag. A hundred years ago, you wouldn’t put your money in a bank unless it had a grand stone building with columns. Today, we look for reassurance from a substantial website. Some distributors say they don’t need a website; most of their customers have been with them for years, and they’re like family. Fair enough, but what about new prospects, let alone the people who are…

By Jon Denney Where is the first place business leaders tend to focus when they decide that profits need a boost? It’s the sales team. Often, company leadership takes a critical eye toward the sales department and decides that the team needs to take it up a notch and make more sales happen. While that route certainly is one way to improve profits and increase profitability fairly immediately, it isn’t the only way. This recent exercise from a company I dealt with in my consultancy points out that there are alternative avenues to creating additional profits. They include focusing on…