Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Century Label decided to revamp the way it connects with its customers—inspired by, of all things, a decades-old commercial.
The commercial first aired in 1989, but that doesn’t make it any less relevant today. A grim-faced executive walks into a conference room packed with people and announces the company has lost a longtime client. The executive tells his employees that they have lost touch with their clients, relying too much on faxes (okay, maybe that’s a little less relevant) and phone calls while eschewing one-on-one, face-to-face interaction. He takes a stack of United Airlines plane tickets and begins handing them out, instructing his employees to go meet with their clients and improve their relationships.
Century Label didn’t feel like it had lost touch with its customers, but it wanted to forge stronger connections and get to know them better. So in late 2018 and early 2019, the Bowling Green, Ohio-based company began making plans to visit its customers and build deeper relationships. The timing couldn’t have been better.
Todd Frendt, CMC Group Chief Operating Officer
“I think [the trips] really helped us propel and get ready for what happened in the pandemic,” says Todd Frendt, the chief operating officer of Century Label’s parent company, CMC Group. He compared Century Label's efforts to strengthen its customer relationships to the United Airlines commercial. “We did go through a mindset change because we felt ourselves slipping into that mentality, ‘We’re just after product and we’re starting to compete on price.’”
When the business landscape changed dramatically at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Century Label was in a good place with its customers, having just reaffirmed its commitment to them in the form of trips, one-on-one meetings and group discussions. So it’s no surprise Century Label remained a valued partner for many of its customers during the pandemic, helping them adjust to the new circumstances. For example, some of Century Label’s customers began shifting their production lines at the start of the pandemic, making hand sanitizer and disinfectants rather than their usual products. Century Label began making the new labels for the new products without skipping a beat.
Meanwhile, Century Label had put itself in a good position to survive the pandemic, Frendt says. Before the word “coronavirus” was on anyone’s mind, Century Label started new lean manufacturing and automation projects. When the pandemic hit and the company was slammed with new orders while many employees were stuck working from home, these projects helped ensure Century Label was able to manage everything without taking a hit to its on-time delivery rate.
The company also reshuffled its available products, focusing more intensely on tamper-evident labels and other labels it had always offered, but rarely emphasized. They also began selling infrared thermometers.
In many ways, it’s not surprising Century Label has been able to weather the pandemic so well. The company has always been resilient, and whenever it is faced with a challenge, it finds a new way to grow and thrive.
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Full article by Annabel Steele originally published May 25, 2021 on PostScript.
