The idea of something that is ‘fit-for-purpose’ is pretty straight forward – it’s a product made for a particular purpose and to perform in certain situations. However, identifying the correct spill product is a lot more difficult.
“Spill” can refer to a thousand different incidents. Nearly all of your customers will experience spills that vary in many different:
- Sizes
- Fluid types (chemical, water-based or oil-based)
- Locations and spaces
A correct spill solution needs to take all this information into account and perform to contain and clean the spills efficiently. As you can see, recommending correct spill products isn’t as simple of an idea as it first might seem.
Spills vary widely in type, severity and clean-up method
What you risk when you don’t know the correct spill products
As a supplier, you’re seen as someone who is able to give advice to consumers around quality and use of products. But when you sell so many products, having expert knowledge on the correct spill products for a single spill category can be difficult, and you risk a number of problems:
- You are unable to deliver the service they expect
- You put them at risk (using the wrong spill product will lead to improper clean up, and potential injury and health risks)
- You risk damaging your customer relationship and their view of you as a supplier
- You burden them financially by selling useless or unnecessary products
Ultimately this can result in a distrust towards your company and ability to provide not just spill products, but any other supplies they might need across their business. This could mean a significant loss of business for you.
The right product can be the difference between upselling, and losing business
Don’t risk it: Here’s the easiest way to always gets it right
The best way to be able to offer the right, quality spill solutions to your customers is by educating yourself and asking your customer questions about their specific needs.
- What fluids do you have onsite?
- How much?
- How big is your worksite?
- Do you have drains?
When you know the big picture, you can better determine their needs and their risk factors – and it also gives you the opportunity to upsell products, if you realise their specific needs require more advanced solutions.
Once you’ve got all this information, you’re in a good position to make an informed product suggestion. Because remembering them all can be hard, we’ve made it easy with this chart:
Correct spill products is about quality, too
If you want to make sure you hit the mark every time, it could be worth offering spill kits as a solution to your customer. They’re specifically created for different spill types, and contain everything you need to efficiently and effectively clean them up.
Unfortunately, not all spill kits or spill products are created equal. Fit for purpose is about the right product for right the application – but it also about quality, and ensuring a product does its job right and meets regulations.
Many floor sweeps on the market don’t meet absorbency or land fill regulations, and many socks and pads are made from unsustainable plastics that aren’t able to be broken down.
Kleen Sweep was voted world’s best organic absorbent on hard surfaces
Enretech’s entire range of spill solutions meet all absorbency, safety and sustainability standards – in fact, Kleen Sweep was voted the world’s best absorbent, for not only meeting regulations but going beyond them.
If you’re interested in learning more about the correct spill solutions to offer and ways you can improve service and sales through product knowledge, email me here or call me on 0488 232 741.
