Book
For job shops with a busy inbox
When you're slammed, RFQs and customer emails fall through the cracks
Machine shop RFQs come in by email, phone and customer portal, and they all land with the same few people. When the floor gets busy, nobody watches the inbox, and some of it never gets an answer.
Sound familiar?
- RFQs come into a shared sales inbox, and everyone assumes someone else picked them up.
- You find an RFQ days later, buried under packing slips and invoices.
- Someone copies RFQ details into a spreadsheet by hand, whenever they get to it.
- A customer writes back to ask if you got their email, and you're not sure you did.
What it costs you
- An RFQ nobody answers is a job you never had a shot at.
- A customer who waits too long for a reply may stop sending you RFQs.
- Your best people spend time digging through email instead of making parts.
- Follow-ups slip too, so open quotes go quiet with nobody asking about them.
Why it keeps happening
- RFQs land in the same inboxes as packing slips, invoices and spam.
- Nobody owns the inbox when the people who read it are out on the floor.
- The only record of what's still open is the inbox itself.
- RFQs don't slow down just because the shop is busy.
Common questions
Why do RFQs get missed in a job shop?
They get missed when the people who read the inbox are also running jobs. When the floor gets busy, the inbox waits, and some RFQs never get read.
Is it only RFQs that slip?
No. Customer questions, rev changes and follow-ups on open quotes slip the same way. If it comes by email and needs an answer, it can get lost.
Do I need to hire someone to watch the inbox?
Maybe, maybe not. It depends on how much comes in and who handles it now. That's worth sorting out before you add a hire.
What exactly do you build?
It depends on how you work today; we figure that out on the call.
Related shop bottlenecks
See all shop bottlenecks, or go back to the home page.
Tell me what slips through your inbox
Keeping up with a busy inbox is a lot of busywork, and that kind of work can now be taken off your team's plate. How depends on your shop, so we start with a call.
Book a call with me, Kevin Kirchner, and tell me where RFQs come in, who reads them and what got missed the last time things got busy.
