Seven Cs to Avoid Procedure Writing Errors

You do your best to make sure your organization is operating as effectively as possible. But if your policies and procedures are incomplete, outdated, or inconsistent, then they are not driving performance improvement they should. When employees try to use incomplete or undefined procedures, waste and costly errors soon follow.

Case Study: Little Mistakes Add Up Quickly

Without knowing it, employees at a local auto parts company were having a costly problem determining when to accept customer credit. The company actually had a detailed credit application procedure, including an exhaustive error correction routine, but procedure had one fatal flaw: it was not properly indexed.

Indexing Improves Usability

Without a way to readily locate and reference applicable procedure in operations manual, employees could not find it and were simply not using it at all, leading to an inconsistent process and wildly varying output. Potentially valuable customers were regularly turned away by some staff members, while others accepted bad credit risks because they were unsure of which ones to reject.

Well, this is all wrong! We have been doing this for years! It is so simple that it amazes me. It is all a matter of knowing how to deal with these companies in Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and South Korea. It is very refreshing dealing with them. I have never been ripped off by any of them!

Even companies that only state in their advertising their minimum quantities, like a container load, will ship small quantities. The trick is calling your request a SAMPLE ORDER! Now, you might not know it, but these companies will accept whatever quantities you request prices for in your Sample Order. Their hope is that you come back and submit a large order. Also, you can get Sample Order shipments over and over.

Some companies are set up to ship small quantities without Sample Order routine. You can tell by their price lists if they show small quantities. Otherwise, you ask them if they will ship a small Sample Order so that you can introduce their products to your customer base. They have no idea how big your company is.

It is important to have appearance of a successful firm. Use letterheads, not hand written correspondence. If you do not have a computer, you better get one quick. Join crowd, or you will not be on same playing field. Email makes all of this work very well. You can actually email these companies real time, when they are in office in Hong Kong, or anywhere. Late night here, is morning there.

This means instant communications, and instant action. You can request a Quotation via email, and they will email you everything you need to proceed. They usually send you what is called a Proforma Invoice, which is just an Invoice in advance. You will be expected to wire funds electronically. This is easily done by your bank.

You can go to their website and see all products and specs. Very often, if you don’t see what you want, they will give you a price on it. You can never tell, always compare prices. Some firms in Orient represent other firms in Orient. You want to buy from Prime Source, manufacturer.

If I were to request a price quote, it may look like this:

Greetings: