Customer service without boundaries

Edward P. Salek, CAE, Executive Director | TLT Headquarters Report December 2017

An email request from an African tribologist demonstrates why the personal touch matters in a digital world.
 

It pays to cultivate professional relationships, and one of the best places to do that is at meetings conducted by professional societies like STLE.
LET ME SHARE A GOOD STORY from behind the scenes at STLE headquarters.

It starts with an email from professor Philip De Vaal, who heads the department of chemical engineering at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. He is a distinguished tribologist and a former president of the South Africa Institute of Tribology (SAIT), STLE’s sister organization in that country. De Vaal and I have known each other since 2001 and have worked together on a number of projects related to STLE-SAIT cooperative activity as well as through the International Tribology Council.

His email asked if we could assist another noted tribologist from Africa, Steven Odi-Owei, a professor of mechanical engineering at Rivers State University of Science & Technology in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. His many credentials include serving as president of the tribology society of Nigeria.

Odi-Owei was looking for a copy of a paper he had written on tribological properties of vegetable oils and fats. It was published in Lubrication Engineering (the predecessor magazine to TLT) in 1989. But there was a problem in tracking it down. While STLE digital archives include every paper published in Tribology Transactions since 1958, and back issues of TLT starting in June 2009, Lubrication Engineering papers are not available through the Website.

Here’s where things get interesting. Nadine Sanchez, membership services specialist in our office, tracked down the paper from historical files and made a digital scan. Within a few hours after the request was received in my inbox, Odi-Owei had a copy of his 28-year-old research paper. All this service provided at no charge.

Am I bragging about the response by Nadine and the exceptional service at no charge? Sure, but there are other lessons to be learned from this simple story.

Clearly digital technology made the quick transmission of request and information possible. However, technology alone would not have been sufficient to get the job done. It was a combination of technology and personal relationships that made the difference.

Odi-Owei and De Vaal know each other through their interactions in the global tribology community. Similarly De Vaal had no hesitation in asking for my help, and I was glad to jump on his request. My point: It pays to cultivate these professional relationships, and one of the best places to do that is at meetings conducted by professional societies like STLE.

A second observation is that STLE thrives as an organization because we employ great people like Nadine. Although she has been a part of our team for only eight months, she knew where to find Odi-Owei’s paper. Plus, she moved on the request immediately because that’s just the way we do things whenever people in our membership ask for help. It’s our job to treat you, the member, as a priority. We appreciate the more than 15,000 organizations and individuals who pay dues to STLE that make it possible to provide this level of service.

Finally, there’s no question STLE is an organization that seeks to do big things. These aspirations are reflected in our mission statement: To advance the science of tribology and the practice of lubrication engineering in order to foster innovation, improve the performance of equipment and products, conserve resources and protect the environment. But we also are an organization made up of dedicated staff and volunteers who recognize that it’s a lot of little things that add up to the capacity to do big things.

Follow the lead of smart people like De Vaal and reach out to any member of our staff in Park Ridge, Ill. We’ll show you that the Connect part of our Connect. Learn. Achieve. value proposition means you will connect with a helpful person at the headquarters office, no matter where you might be located around the world.


You can reach Certified Association Executive Ed Salek at esalek@stle.org.