We recently had some work done to upgrade our phone system (Don’t worry we’re not “upgrading” to a voicemail system) and found this very simple but helpful tag hanging on some of the equipment…

Pretty sage advice from a tag, I’ve got friends I have counted on for years who have yet to produce such sound counsel. The message is certainly a sound one and I could wax on for days about the assumptions I have made over the years which haven’t really worked out in my favor…

• For MANY years I assumed bringing home flowers to my wife was a waste of money.
• I assumed my children would actually copy the behavior of their Mom and not their Dad (this one came with a swift learning curve – it’s just not right to hear a toddler curse)
• I once assumed the gas warning light in my car really meant I had plenty of gas to make it home.
• And I remember assuming I could repair the toilet without turning the main water supply off (in a sad twist of fate my toilet water supply pipe broke, spewed water until I could run down two flights of stairs to turn off the main supply and then sunk my thoughts of “it will be OK” as I watched water drip through the light fixtures of my kitchen)

The point is this, we all make assumptions. Sometimes based on convenience, sometimes based on economics and sometimes based on half thoughts. Only to find that our convenience is severely compromised, our pocketbooks are significantly impacted and our half-baked thoughts get exposed.

Some businesses behave similarly – they assume your problem is handled off of a script being read in a far away place or they assume your urgent problem gets solved by leaving a message on a voicemail system. They may even assume you already know what you want, and they just need to take your order.

We try not to make these kinds of assumptions at EXAIR. We are fully staffed to speak with you about your application, many times it is a process to work it out together, or recognize a unique situation which can’t be found in a script. If you don’t know what you want or need, we don’t assume you should choose it on your own, we want to help you reach a successful end. I guess that is making some assumptions – we assume you could use a bit of assistance and that you will be happy when you actually get it.

Have a great day.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com