Through the years, BenzForce has been responsible for upgrading hundreds of injection pumps. It is with mixed feelings that we will be suspending the upgrade offering once our current inventory of elements has been used. I am not sure if it will be temporary or permanent at this point.
From the onset BenzForce has been all about trying to provide products and services to customers that are value added. In the case of pumps, shipping and domestic support were the upside. My personal payoff was always when excited customers would call, and they couldn’t believe what a difference a bit more fuel made in these engines. That was the essence of the BenzForce movement and what I enjoy most about participating in this business.
As with most things, when your hobbies and interests become demanding like a job, the fun quickly evaporates. That isn’t an issue derived from the community, it’s just the way things are. For the older people reading this I think of the contrast between the first donut the Dunkin’ Donut guy made and his last … the old “time to make the donuts” commercials are starting to hit home a bit. As most people know, we facilitate and are completely responsible for the warranty and service of the pumps but we rely on a partner to build them. We have purchased our own test bench and tooling to do pumps in house, but the cost of goods sold simply doesn’t make it worth it. I have another blog you can read if you are super bored about this but in the end, the margin just isn’t worth the time spent on fulfillment, presales, installation support, and all the “is it ready yet” updates.
The thing is, I completely side with the customer and know they are paying a lot for an upgrade, or so they think. Other costs, not mentioned above, are the labor to upgrade the pump, clean it, calibrate it, hardware cost, machine maintenance, calibration fluid, etc. In the end, the time lost on the sales and support cycle is much more expensive than the profit an upgrade can bring, even if it was 100% profit.
For other business owners, the initial thought will most likely be, you should just hire someone and I’m with you. A while back I was trying to find a resource to take on this activity and run BenzForce but I could not find anyone I trusted enough to hand over the keys. It also comes back to margin and determining if the hire makes sense. For those of you that are not business owners with employees, you need to know that their wage is not what a business pays. Employers are subject to workers' compensation insurance, benefits and a whole lot of unproductive drama, expensive mistakes, etc. So, what I said still stands whether it’s me or an employee building pumps.
Therefore, once we deplete our inventory of Dieselmeken hardware, pump upgrade initiatives will be put on the back burner. For those that have a BenzForce pump, there is no need to worry. We are still here for you, and you won’t be left hanging. Once more free time becomes available, I will revising pump upgrades.
Rodney