I want feedback!

Barry

Paint Fanatic
Staff member
I want your help!
I was thinking yesterday of ways to improve our business operations and we seem to be doing so many things better than our competitors BUT when you have your hands in something as much as I micro manage this company, sometimes you don’t see the obvious bad points like an outsider might.
Here is what I ask of you, don’t want to hear the good, I want you to tell me what you think we do wrong or you personally don’t like, so I can make this company better.
You will not piss me off, as I’m asking for your help.
Just leave having a full base line out as we never will.
Thanks
Barry
 
Only negative thing I can think of is bring back the SPI Bedliner!
 
x2 on the bedliner!!!

Online ordering would be nice. And I can understand that would not be cool with your jobbers, but I'm sure it could be setup so only customers that don't have a local supplier could access the online ordering system. It would be good to be able to fill up a shopping cart so you can see a total.
 
x3 bedliner, x2 online ordering. It looked like a quickbooks type invoice to me that you have, I have it set with online pay through them to my customers bank to bank & it costs me .50 per transaction compared to taking a card @ 2.75%. just throwing it out there if you do indeed use quickbooks I have had good luck with it & customer feedback has been positive. Thanks for asking!
 
LOL at the peanuts^ Shine! We are a PPG shop, but I have my boss order me usually 4 gallons of production clear every other week for me to use as need be (I try to use it as much as possible!). The peanuts mixed with the static whenever you open the boxes drives me nuts! But if that's my worst complaint I believe that's pretty good! I believe I had read somewhere before about a problem possibly with handing out mix ratios by weight as well. But maybe give out weight per ounce or mix ratio by weight for those who are regular purchasers. Say I use a 13.5oz 3M cup to do a fender/hood job and do the 4:1 for production clear, then come out of the booth to mix the second coats worth and don't have enough, I have to dirty another cup or liner to get what i already have mixed with another good 4:1 ratio to top my cup off. I have weighed out both separately to make an ounce worth, and use that ratio to top my cup off times X amount but I'm sure I"m probably not 100%. Thanks!
 
An SPI metal measuring stick would be nice. PPG is one of the only ones left that still have them. I found that those stupid measuring cups are off and almost always have one part left over and the other is all gone. I would like to see a measuring stick with the graduation marks for each product being used.

I would also like to see Turbo offered in quarts.
 
I would like for the turbo to have some gloss like the epoxy. helps me when sanding.
 
The only thing that has ever bothered me were the peanuts (actually, it's the damn STATIC that ticks me off the most!), we have to open the boxes perched on top of the trash can and try to pour enough peanuts out without dumping the products in the trash. This is the only way to keep them from going all over the place. But it's a small price to pay, right?
 
I put a 55 gallon trash bag over the top and tip the box over to get most of the peanuts out but it is aggrivating. Thought about sucking them out with the shop vac.
 
I wish I had something helpful to offer. Barry, if you ever find a way to put smart in a can, I'll buy it and most of my problems would be solved. I seem to open way too many cans of stupid lately.

I did find that static on foam peanuts can be tamed quite a bit with a light spray of water.
SprayBottles_zpsa28274f7.jpg
 
The fact that you ask for feed back speaks volumes. But does not surprise me.
The peanuts aren't all that bad to deal with. Can't think of any suggestions and never had any complaints. I get it about the base colors.
Can't be all things to all people but you can be the best at what you do.
 
Ok here's my two cents from using SPI products and from a small jobber point of view:

I think the weakest link in SPI is the spray-ability of some of its primers, specifically the Epoxy primer cratering issue when loaded too heavy, if someone like Jim C that has been spraying it for 15 years has issues with it every now and then, what's to be expected from a painter that tries it for the first time and gets craters with it? That's lost sales and some potentially bad mouthing of an otherwise outstanding primer, some people don't have the patience for a fuzzy product.

If there's a way to tweak the formula and make that problem go away, might be worth to sort it out, it's the only negative comment I get from painters using the epoxy.

Is there a way to make the Regular 2K spray like the HB primer or even better a bit like the Turbo? From what I've seen out there with the shops that demo the 2K Regular it's a 50/50 chance that they will like it, if the shop doesn't have a very clean primer gun with a 1.8 tip, IT WILL BE A NO GO. I've seen many shops spray other 2K primers with dirty, crappy looking 1.6 tip size guns and they spray easier and smoother than the Reg 2K with a decent build. I think the fact that it dries so fast has its drawbacks.

If I get lucky and the shop asks me to demo it, then I can spray it out of my SATA 1.8 Primer gun with ZERO issues, but not many shops care for a clean dedicated primer gun.

Other than that I think the SPI line works extremely well and better than most products out there.

Jorge M.
 
I get requests for matte products in quarts from time to time..
But then there would be a activator issue as they only come in quarts..

However looking over what people want improved is really "peanuts" in comparison to what I see that needs improved with other companies.
 
We thinks you may be spending a lot of time laboring over individual customer use issues and product application problems complicated within a concentrated product line. If not doing so already, strive to concentrate on establishing a specific focus on a spec genre of select product that in return would involve more volume output, economy of movement on your part and less overall product cradle rocking. That is the key - " Know when it is time to let go of those things which no longer serve you but force you to serve them "
 
Overspray;n78982 said:
We thinks you may be spending a lot of time laboring over individual customer use issues and product application problems complicated within a concentrated product line. If not doing so already, strive to concentrate on establishing a specific focus on a spec genre of select product that in return would involve more volume output, economy of movement on your part and less overall product cradle rocking. That is the key - " Know when it is time to let go of those things which no longer serve you but force you to serve them "

Correct me if I'm wrong Barry, but that's why the bedliner was dropped and the refusal to ramp up a full on basecoat line. Too much work for not enough return.
 
Jorge M. said:
Ok here's my two cents from using SPI products and from a small jobber point of view:

I think the weakest link in SPI is the spray-ability of some of its primers, specifically the Epoxy primer cratering issue when loaded too heavy, if someone like Jim C that has been spraying it for 15 years has issues with it every now and then, what's to be expected from a painter that tries it for the first time and gets craters with it? That's lost sales and some potentially bad mouthing of an otherwise outstanding primer, some people don't have the patience for a fuzzy product.

If there's a way to tweak the formula and make that problem go away, might be worth to sort it out, it's the only negative comment I get from painters using the epoxy.

Is there a way to make the Regular 2K spray like the HB primer or even better a bit like the Turbo? From what I've seen out there with the shops that demo the 2K Regular it's a 50/50 chance that they will like it, if the shop doesn't have a very clean primer gun with a 1.8 tip, IT WILL BE A NO GO. I've seen many shops spray other 2K primers with dirty, crappy looking 1.6 tip size guns and they spray easier and smoother than the Reg 2K with a decent build. I think the fact that it dries so fast has its drawbacks.

If I get lucky and the shop asks me to demo it, then I can spray it out of my SATA 1.8 Primer gun with ZERO issues, but not many shops care for a clean dedicated primer gun.

Other than that I think the SPI line works extremely well and better than most products out there.

Jorge M.
Could the cratering problem possibly be handled by editing the Application Instructions. Once I started spraying the epoxy primer like a base coat I haven't had a single problem with cratering. It only happened when I tried to hammer it on thinking it was just a primer.
 
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