Customer service has traditionally been judged by how well a supplier responded when something went wrong. A late truck, a production delay or an unexpected pallet shortage created an opportunity to recover quickly and keep a customer’s production line running.
That expectation hasn’t disappeared, but leading pallet companies increasingly define customer service differently. Rather than simply reacting to problems, they are investing in communication, relationships and technology that help prevent problems before they occur.
Conversations with Steve Mazza, founder and president of S&B Pallet Co. Inc.; Chris Pletcher, president and CEO of FALM; Kathleen Dietrich, vice president of Priority Pallet and Commercial Lumber Company; and Samantha Coie, regional customer manager at Millwood, Inc., revealed remarkable agreement on that point. Their companies differ in size, geography and business model, but each described customer service as something that begins long before a customer has a complaint.
Preventing Problems Before They Start
For Steve Mazza, the fundamentals of customer service have not changed nearly as much as customer expectations. “We still follow the same principles,” Mazza said. “It’s changed, of course, a lot. Customers expect more as far as communication, and we try to be on the front line of their expectations.”
S&B continues to accept orders by phone, email and customer portal, although Mazza said the company actually prefers direct email because it creates fewer problems and makes it easier to respond immediately.
“We have a little phrase we use,” he said. “Do everything in real time.” At S&B, that means customers shouldn’t wonder whether an order disappeared into someone’s inbox. The company targets a response within five minutes, acknowledges receipt, and continues communicating as the order moves through production and delivery.
Mazza likens the approach to the e-commerce order visibility consumers now expect every day. Customers appreciate knowing that their order has been received, when it ships and when delivery is complete. The same expectation exists increasingly in the pallet business.
This timely communication approach becomes even more important when something goes wrong. “We let our customers know there’s a problem before it’s after the fact,” Mazza said. “At 8 o’clock we know if the afternoon order is going to be there on time or not. So at 8 o’clock we’ll either give our customer a phone call or an email.”
Rather than waiting for a customer to ask where the truck is, S&B believes the supplier should initiate the conversation. That advance notice gives customers time to adjust schedules and eliminates much of the frustration that comes from uncertainty.
Emergency response is another part of the equation. Standard 48×40 inventory is kept available, while custom pallets generally ship within 24 to 48 hours. Mazza said S&B maintains multiple delivery options, from tractor trailers and straight trucks to pickup trucks with trailers and outside carriers, allowing the company to react quickly when customers suddenly need pallets to keep production moving.
Kathleen Dietrich sees the same philosophy from a different perspective. “I think that you have to say what you can do, and then do it,” she said.
That sounds obvious, but Dietrich believes it is one of the easiest promises to break. “Don’t tell somebody that they’re going to get their pallets in three days when you know darn good and well your lead time is five days,” she said. “And if something goes wrong…don’t wait for them to find that out on their own.” Instead, customers should hear directly from their supplier before production problems or transportation delays become surprises.
Millwood’s Samantha Coie echoed that same theme. She said, “I’ve noticed that customers appreciate quick responsiveness. And if you can assist them with an urgent situation, they are very grateful.”
Relationships Still Matter
Although communication has evolved dramatically, none of the interviewees suggested that relationships have become less important. For Chris Pletcher, customer service begins with what he calls “a spirit of generosity and abundance.”
“The idea is that we will go the extra mile and give the very best level of service that we can so that the customer is satisfied, and knows we value their ongoing business,” he said. That philosophy can mean making an extra phone call, solving a logistics problem or simply being available when customers need help. Rather than trying to recover every possible charge, Pletcher said FALM focuses on making the overall relationship more valuable.
The company’s technology platform also allows it to provide detailed purchasing summaries, year-over-year comparisons and spending reports that many customers cannot easily generate themselves. “We found that a lot of companies aren’t doing that internally as well as they’d like,” Pletcher said. “In many cases, they’re relying on us to provide that information.”
For companies managing multiple facilities, that reporting helps track pallet usage, purchasing trends and costs while giving procurement managers better information for internal planning. Pletcher said those services help explain why many customers choose FALM even when another supplier offers a slightly lower price. “We may not always be the cheapest,” he said, “but we will shine with service at a competitive rate.”
The company also uses its data proactively to help prevent a plant from running out of pallets. By tracking each customer’s normal ordering frequency, FALM can flag that a customer did not submit a regular order and reach out before a shortage develops.
“I don’t know if I would even call that customer service, but rather just showing that we care,” Pletcher said. “We are really paying attention to each account.”
Dietrich expressed a remarkably similar philosophy. “We aren’t always, and never have been, the cheapest guy on the block,” she said. “But what we do pride ourselves in is our quality and our service.”
Commercial Lumber and Priority Pallet continue to rely heavily on outside sales representatives because relationships remain one of their strongest competitive advantages. “They know about their families, they know what they do in their leisure time,” Dietrich said. “They’re relationship builders.” She acknowledged that establishing those close connections has become more difficult. Buyers are harder to reach than they were years ago. Cold calling has largely disappeared, security restrictions limit plant visits, and many people simply don’t answer the phone. Company websites and digital marketing now play a larger role in introducing new customers to the business.
Maintaining existing relationships, however, still depends on personal communication. “You never really think about pallets until you run out,” Dietrich said. “It’s our job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Millwood also sees service extending beyond simply supplying pallets. Coie noted, “Product quality, building relationships with customers and try to avoid saying ‘no’ to the customer. The more services Millwood provides to a customer, the more loyal that customer is to Millwood.”
Customers may shop price, but they remember suppliers that consistently provide quality products, responsive service and dependable communication.
Technology Should Support People
Technology appeared in every interview, but none of the participants viewed it as a substitute for people. Mazza said S&B continues to evaluate artificial intelligence and other new tools, but he remains cautious about allowing technology to replace human judgment.
“We try to avoid those kind of putting-the-brain-to-sleep things,” he said. “Our employees can still connect dots and think about things and see things in the physical world.” In other words, don’t just take the computer data as gospel. Compare those reports with what you actually see each time you step into the yard.
For Pletcher, technology’s greatest value is providing better information. He is working toward customers having secure online access to reports and account information on demand without waiting for someone to manually send it.
Dietrich expects technology to improve communication as well. She sees automated order confirmations, customer visibility into order status and closer integration between suppliers and customers becoming increasingly common. But she cautions that those tools must strengthen relationships rather than replace them.
Pletcher offered a different perspective on customer service, noting that FALM has expanded its thinking beyond the traditional buyer-seller relationship. “I redefined who our customer was,” he said. “It’s not just the customer that’s paying our invoice that is considered a customer, but our vendors and our partners are also customers.”
Dietrich described much the same idea as a triangle connecting supplier, vendor and customer. Every side of that relationship contributes to the final customer experience, making communication throughout the supply chain just as important as communication with the buyer.
Coie expressed a similar perspective, acknowledging that a hiccup elsewhere in the supply chain can result in a potential service issue. Even the best planning cannot prevent every problem. She commented, “You can only prepare as much as you can, but there are so many variables that change and you have to adjust and adapt. You can’t prepare for a truck blowing a tire on his way to a delivery or a load not being able to ship on time because the lumber that was received had mold. As long as you stay in communication with your customer, be honest and give them as many options as possible, they usually are pretty understanding.”
Identifying any problem areas requires paying attention to details and good internal quality-control processes. Coie added, “Supervisors inspect each load, before they leave the facilities, and I will be informed if they think there is an issue and we will address with the customer before the pallets even leave the facility to ensure that no one is wasting their time and money.”
Service Expectations Evolve Over Time
What a customer expected 10 years ago is likely not what they demand now. Coie explained, “I have experienced that a lot more customers are expecting the JIT (just-in-time) experience. Also, customer service is expected to be available at all times.” These changing expectations explain why delayed or missed deliveries can be very damaging to a pallet buyer. Everything is run so JIT that delayed pallets can lead to production disruptions.
Also, modes of communication are changing and becoming faster. Coie admitted, “With more emails and text messages, everything is a lot more fast-paced than it used to be.”
Some things don’t really change, though. Customers want to feel valued and understood. They want the key deliverables that matter to their organization. The two biggest expectations remain the same: keep me informed and treat me like I matter.
Key Customer Service Takeaways
- Proactive communication beats reactive problem-solving. Leading pallet suppliers now alert customers to potential delays before they become issues, rather than waiting for a complaint.
- Say what you’ll do, then do it. Setting realistic expectations and being upfront when something will fall through builds more trust than overpromising.
- Relationships remain a competitive differentiator, even against lower prices. Several companies noted they aren’t the cheapest option, but strong personal relationships, quality, and dependable service keep customers loyal and willing to pay for those benefits.
- Technology should enhance human judgment, not replace it. Tools like automated reporting, order tracking and purchase analytics add real value, but interviewees stressed that data should support decision-making, not substitute for employees who can “connect dots” in the physical world.
- Customer service extends across the whole supply chain. Some suppliers now treat vendors and partners as “customers” too, recognizing that a breakdown anywhere in the chain (a delayed shipment, a supplier hiccup) ultimately affects the end customer’s experience.
