Have you ever ordered something that you have wanted for a long time?  And then, as soon as you finalize your order, you start the countdown to the delivery date?  Well, we at SOLID Steel Buildings do the exact same thing with each Custom-Engineered Steel Buildings we produce, just on a larger scale.

Now, imagine the package that you were waiting for so excitedly just did not show up? I imagine your next step would be to call Customer Service and try to figure out where your much anticipated package is. I know from experience that Customer Service is not what it used to be.  Customer Service Agents should be doing everything in their power to help you, instead they seem to just want to push you off or transfer you to another department.  At SOLID Steel Buildings Customer Service starts the moment you engage with us!

In our industry, time really is money with our construction and delivery schedules being crucial to maintain. For example, we had a customer in Texas that we’d ironed out their schedule and had delivered their order to them on agreed dates that worked for their project. All was going smoothly until I received a call from the customer informing me that they were missing gutters and downspouts. At this point, this was all they needed to complete their project. Instead of pushing them off to the “other” guy, I took action myself to get to the bottom of these missing parts as quickly as possible. When situations like this occur, the customer should never be left out of the loop. I assured him that we would work out the kinks, locate the parts and he would be updated on any information that I found out.

My first step was to call our factory where the building was manufactured. I directly contacted the shipping yard. The shipping yard was also very proactive and pin pointed exactly what crate the missing parts should have been in. I was informed within the hour that Crate #2 was the one we should be looking at. With this information, I took it straight back to the customer to update him.

Now, not only were the parts missing but the customer informed me that they were missing Crate #2 entirely. Again, I went back to our factory and they assured me everything was shipped together and on time.

My next step was to call the shipping company. It ended up being a mistake on their end. After learning this information, I immediately had the parts re-ordered and shipped right away, even personally calling the shipping company to push the process along. I then called the customer to let him know what was going on and he could not have been any more understanding.  He was very grateful on how proactive that our company was in solving the problem and today they are another happily satisfied SOLID Steel Buildings customer because we put the most important factor first in our process…the Customer!

There are many studies pointing to how important Customer Service is and below are a few of the research findings that we take to heart at SOLID Steel Buildings

78% of consumers have bailed on a transaction or not made an intended purchase because of a poor service experience.

Source: American Express Survey

70% of buying experiences are based on how the customer feels they are being treated.

Source: McKinsey

3 in 5 Americans (59%) would try a new brand or company for a better service experience.

 Source: American Express Survey

News of bad customer service reaches more than twice as many ears as praise for a good service experience.

Source: White House Office of Consumer Affairs

80% of Americans agree that smaller companies place a greater emphasis on customer service than large businesses.

 Source: American Express Survey

We take Customer Service very seriously and we understand that everyone has different needs. We make it our mission to have all of our customers’ projects go off without a hitch. Whether we are erecting the project or just supplying the building, every customer is just as important as the rest. When trouble strikes, we strike back and do everything in our wheelhouse to solve problems in a timely yet efficient manner. That’s the SOLID difference!

As any proud blogger would do I posted my last blog entitled Pre-Fab Steel Buildings- They’ve Got the Look! about how versatile Prefabricated Steel Buildings are on my Facebook page, my LinkedIn page and a few other social media sites.  Later that day I get a text from one of my engineers that said, “I saw the blog…why call them prefabricated buildings…to be honest they are not even Pre-Engineered buildings anymore…they used to be 50 years ago….”  Should I mention that he is also my dear friend?  And, that was his one and only comment???  So much for his words of encouragement, right?

But truth be told his “criticism” led to a really interesting conversation that was very educational for me; as it usually is when talking to engineers in general and particularly my friend.  You see, he has been in the steel building industry for a long time and he remembers well the days when he use to work for the largest steel building manufacturer in the USA.  It was their practice and every other manufacturer’s practice at that time to have stockpiles of frames in their warehouses that were already engineered.  They typically inventoried frames for 30’wide, 40’wide, 50’wide…that were already engineered.  Each frame width was engineered with either a 5 psf snow load, or a 10 psf snow load, or a 15 psf snow load and on and on. He informed me that back in the day when someone ordered a building they just pulled the Pre-Engineered drawings for the frame with the appropriate snow load off the shelf along with the Pre-Engineered drawings for the secondary framing (e.g. Z and C shaped members), the framed openings, the component pieces, etc. until they had a complete building made up solely of Pre-Engineered pieces.  And that is how the term “Pre-Engineered Building” came to pass.

Merriam-Webster has the definition of Pre-Engineered as: constructed of or employing prefabricated modules <a Pre-Engineered Metal Building>.   Below is a drawing that shows some of the more major modules making up a Pre-Engineered building.

Although today’s metal buildings have almost all the same modules as the diagram above they are rarely considered “Pre-Engineered” anymore even though that is what the buildings are still called by the Sales Reps, General Contractors and End Users.  I asked my friend, “If they are not ‘Pre-Engineered’ then what are they?”  He replied, “Custom Engineered”.

He went on and on to explain that in today’s environment, the International Building Codes change so fast that you need technology to keep track of the codes.  It used to be that a State would change their Building Code once every 5 years or greater.  Now it seems that most States change their code or add changes to their code every year.  This in turn makes any Pre-Engineered drawings obsolete in less than a year.  So, the time spent pre-engineering all those different widths with all those different loads not a cost-effective model anymore.

Plus, in today’s environment buildings are no longer “stock buildings” because no matter what vertical is desired, buildings require specialization.  Short of the client saying to me, “I need a building for dry storage. Minimal insulation.  No accessories at all.  Standard door sizes in the most cost-effective location. No bells or whistles.” There will be some sort of specialization on that building.

Agricultural buildings use to be my most straight-forward vertical.  But, now Agricultural buildings have become very complex and require a lot of “out-of-the-box” designs.  Whether it is the need to direct the gases that manure produces out of the building, managing the destruction birds can cause to a building, or being able to do a clean scrape twice a day without having to work around the I-beams, etc. today’s Agricultural Buildings are complex and specialized.

Even though today’s Steel Buildings still use the same technology, concepts, connections, designs and techniques and yesterday’s Pre-Engineered Steel Buildings they are not to be confused with today’s Custom-Engineered Steel Buildings.

It was just yesterday that I was talking to the Owner of a large General Contracting Firm in Long Island, New York.  He emailed me some pictures of a large steel structure he had completed a year ago.  And he said, “I had to do this building out of Structural Steel because there were two attaching cranes in the building.  One crane was 22 tons and the other was 9 tons.”  This GC did not know that Pre-fabricated, steel buildings are so customized nowadays that they can be engineered to hold any crane no matter what the size is.  And this GC knows his industry!  He didn’t know that for one reason, my industry has changed so much in the last 10 years and my industry’s Representatives are not doing a good job of educating the Architects, Engineers, General Contractors and End Users.

Why isn’t my Industry doing a better job educated the public?  It’s simple, because they are still stuck selling a “Cancelled Building” pitch.  Click on my 1:32 video for an example of a “Cancelled Building” pitch.  If you have ever spoken with most Steel Building Companies, other than Solid Steel Buildings, you have probably heard a cancelled building pitch. https://youtu.be/PRTVzL8erWs

The point of this blog is to discuss whether there is really such a thing as a Pre-Engineered Building anymore.  And the short answer is “Yes” because there are still some dinosaur pre-fab shops out there.  But, should you buy one?  In almost every case the answer is, “No”.  Why?  Because the building process is a long road that is easily managed when you know what you are doing or you hire the right people who know what they are doing.  And rarely, very rarely, is a “Pre-Fab”, “Stock Building” going to work for your purposes or your Building Inspector’s.

A “Custom-Engineered” Steel Building will be engineered to satisfy your Building Inspector’s and your client’s needs- For the same price!  Steel is sold by the pound, not by the engineering.  So now when someone asks me what I do for a living my answer is no longer, “I sell Pre-Engineered Steel Buildings” because I sell Custom-Engineered Steel Buildings.  And the best part is my buildings are the exact same competitive price they always have been.  The only thing that changed was my understanding of the history of the phrase “Pre-Engineered”.  And guess what?  I like saying, “Custom Engineered” a lot better!  It has a nicer ring to it!

This week I was reading an Industry magazine and became inspired by the article highlighted on the front cover.  The featured story discussed the opportunities and benefits for using Steel Framing in Residential Construction. It also went on to explore the pros and cons of building homes out of steel vs. traditional wood.  It was an interesting article with some thought provoking ideas for the future of residential building.  If you’d like to see it for yourself, you can find it in the September 2015 issue of Metal Construction News.

After reading the piece, I found myself thinking about how Pre-Fabricated Steel Buildings are an incredibly attractive option, both financially and aesthetically, for residential building.  These buildings can be designed to look absolutely anyway you want them to- from the overall shape of the structure down to the many different materials that can be installed over top of the sheeting to achieve the finish that you desire. The versatility of Pre-Fabricated Steel Buildings seems to be this Industry’s Best Kept Secret.  You can have a curved roof, hipped roofs, concrete roofs, multiple floors, rounded walls, multiple eave heights, energy-efficient building envelopes made out of just the sheeting, and even elevators. You can hang tons of weight off the roof for cranes, hoists or whatever your heart desires to hang inside your building.  Pre-Fab Steel Buildings can be used for most any structure, big or small.  I could go on and on with all the endless possibilities Pre-Fab Steel Buildings can offer, but for this post, I am only focusing on the outside “look” you can achieve with a Pre-Fab Steel Building.

I get a lot of calls from Homeowners and General Contractors located in the North Eastern states that are bound by specific codes to make their riding arena, garage, warehouse, office space, etc. look like the historical buildings in their neighborhood.  Basically, the local Building Departments are not going to allow the Homeowners and Business Owners to build a structure that looks like a traditional Pre-Fabricated Steel Building; with a low roof slope, no overhangs and corrugated sheeting.  But, these Homeowners and GC’s have a budget that can only be fulfilled with a Pre-Fabricated Steel Building.  So, they call me and ask, “What can you do to help me meet my Building Department’s aesthetic code?”

My clients are always so surprised by my response, which is usually, “I can do anything you want.”  I want it to look like a Log Cabin?  “No problem.”  I want the roof to have an 8:12 pitch and look like it belongs in Switzerland? “Sure.”  I can’t have any corrugated sheeting at all, anywhere on my building?  “What are you allowed to have?  Let’s engineer it using whatever you want to put on the exterior walls.”  You want stucco walls?  “Okay! Great!”  I want to use the same siding I used on my house so my garage and house match.  “Cool.”  I am looking for an energy-efficient, clear building so the public can see what is going on inside my factory as they walk by.  “That sounds so cool.  Of course I can do that.”  These are just some of the questions that have been asked of me and my responses.  My answer always comes down to, “Yes, I can do that.”

It is seems unfortunate that more GC’s aren’t aware that they could be using Pre-Fab Steel Buildings to win bids.  Not only can Pre-Fab be designed to meet any look, it is significantly more cost effective than a traditional building. If a General Contractor would bid using Pre-Fab Construction against another contractor using a traditional construction method, the Pre-Fab GC would more than likely win the business.

This has happened more than once to some of my GC’s in that they went into a bid with a Pre-Fab price (having clarified through an RFI that Pre-Fab was acceptable) and everyone else had a traditional build price. Since the Pre-Fab bid was so much lower, the entire process was put on hold until the Project Managers investigated the feasibility of using Pre-Fabricated Steel for the project before they awarded the bid.  Each time, my GC was eventually awarded the job.  The process took a little longer, but they got the award and the $$$$$.  More GC’s should be taking advantage of the cost-savings Pre-Fab has to offer.

I believe that one of the biggest reasons more homeowners and GC’s aren’t using Pre-Fab is simply because they don’t know they could get the “look” they are trying to achieve with a Pre-Fabricated Steel Building. But, you can!  There is not one type of exterior “wall” that cannot be applied to my building.  There is not one type of “roof” that cannot be applied to my building, including a concrete roof.

If you have drawings or maybe just an idea and you are curious if Pre-Fabricated Steel can achieve the design you are going for, then reach out to us at Solid Steel.  We can design, manufacture & deliver the building, as well as design and pour the foundation, and ultimately erect your building for you.  We have unlimited options for you.

Below I’ve attached a handful of pictures emphasizing a range of different looks that can be achieved.  You can see for yourself the versatility of Pre-Fabricated Steel Buildings!