Most of my time goes into finding new customers, but some of my best ideas have come from talking to existing ones. I started asking repeat customers one simple question "what almost stopped you from buying from us in the first time?" And The answers have been surprisingly helpful. Curious if anyone else has asked something similar.
Thank you.
I’ve been trying to learn more about manufacturing recently, and one thing I keep noticing is how different real factory operations seem compared to theory or classroom discussions.
On paper everything looks optimized and structured, but people working in manufacturing often talk about:
supplier delays
machine downtime
communication gaps
production bottlenecks
quality control surprises
unrealistic timelines
inventory chaos
operators finding problems engineers missed
So I’m curious What’s one lesson about manufacturing you only understood after working in the real world?
(Interested in hearing the brutally practical stuff that newcomers usually don’t realize until much later)