Last week we welcomed two customers to our MICROingranaggi premises, who came to show me (I mean: physically show me) the workpieces we will be processing. The same thing happened this week with another three customers.
So what? you may ask yourself. Why is that so strange?
Nothing. If it were not for the fact that we are in the midst of a huge pandemic and these meetings could have been replaced by Teams or Zoom calls.
Now, in a very particular year in which Italy has taken giant steps forward from a digital point of view, where many traders are not operating online (including those who would never have imagined doing so), where most operational meetings were held via Teams&Co and many trade fairs have established a sort of digital alter ego (see the recent MECSPE Connect), this made me think.
And I do not know if it is a prerogative of our specific sector, or if it is the mentality of the people who work there, but my impression is that
in the mechanical sector, when there are ongoing projects in which investments are required, people want to look into your eyes and need to negotiate with pieces of iron in their hands.
Perhaps in other sectors it is different and perhaps a digital trade fair can operate and fully replace the traditional versions, but in our sector it is not particulary effective.
When we attend a trade fair we erect showcases in our booth to display our workpieces. Maybe it will seem exaggerated to those who don’t operate in our sector, but you have no idea how many people ask us to take the pieces out of the showcase to be able to touch them.
And then think about everything that passes emotionally through human contact.
It is much easier to communicate the value of ones products when you are face to face in the same room. And, similarly, the empathy is difficult to transmit through the filter of a computer screen.
Let’s take a example.
A few days ago I had a call from a company which we had contacted because we are considering the purchase of a new plant system. After a long chat via Teams, my interlocutor “transferred the call to his smartphone” and went to the workshop to show me a series of details of the plant system we were talking about.
This approach was very helpful because the company that I am talking about is located hundreds of kilometres from our facility in Buccinasco and, without moving from my office, I managed to see everything I needed and I was very satisfied with the outcome of the meeting.
There is, however, a point to make: the example that I just made refers to a company that I have known for over 15 years and therefore I already knew that it was a very serious and reliable enterprise, and I already knew the quality of its products.
In other words, I had already made a first assessment. But would it have been the same if the Teams meeting had been our very first meeting to get to know each other? I doubt it very much.
Then of course, as in all things, it is likely that in time there will be further digital developments also for these aspects of the mechanical industry – just think of the changes in shopping habits online in such a very short time – but as far as we are concerned, I think there is still some way to go…
