While every vendor strives for perfection, most often people settle for doing their best. But with Marathon Labels, doing their best went beyond the ordinary when they earned a perfect scorecard from one of their customers: Tuthill Transfer Systems.
Tuthill Transfer Systems (TTS) is the Fort Wayne Division of Tuthill Corporation, which creates pumps, blowers, vacuum systems and meters that help fuel a variety of industries, including energy and agriculture. TTS is best known for its ‘Red Pump’ and other rugged, high performance, fuel, oil, and chemical transfer pumps and meters. Product labeling is extremely important for TTS because of the nature of their products and the environments in which they are used.
Tuthill and Marathon Labels have been working together since 2004. However, Jeff Fisher of Tuthill simply knows that the relationship predates his tenure as a senior strategic buyer. He says his favorite thing about working with Marathon Labels is simple,
“They don’t cause me any headaches, and I certainly can’t say that about all our vendors.”
Perhaps it is that lack of headaches that helped earn Marathon Labels a perfect vendor scorecard from Tuthill. The Tuthill scorecard includes assessments in lean manufacturing, engineering, quality and supply chain, with key metric scores for delivery and quality performance. In every category and sub-category, across the board, Marathon Labels scored a perfect 5/excellent.
Jeff Fisher said that perfect scorecards are a rarity, but he wasn’t surprised when Marathon Labels earned one.
“I never have a problem with them. They never say no, they keep us in parts, they respond the same day and they follow through with what they say they will do. I have zero hesitation in moving more of our labels to Marathon.”
It’s not only customer service that keeps TTS returning to Marathon Labels. According to Jeff Fisher, he also relies on their expertise. He explains that he isn’t a label expert, especially when it comes to regulatory compliance, an important factor with their products. But, he knows that the team at Marathon stay up to date all the standards and beyond.
“All I have to do is show them a print and they get it immediately. They know what needs to be done and how to do it.”
He also points out that Marathon’s knowledge of regulatory labels is a value-added service not every vendor can match.
Fisher goes on to explain that Marathon Labels has also earned the right to ask for more of his business. But even with that, they took the request to the next level by offering to cover a portion of the transition cost. He says that is how a company earns his business.
“Marathon Labels is the type of company I want to give more business to. I don’t like to make angry phone calls to vendors, but it happens more frequently than you might think. Marathon just doesn’t ever put me in that position.”
Not surprisingly, Marathon Labels also highly values the relationship with Tuthill – that’s how successful partnerships work. Marathon VP of Operations , Kelci Burnham, says that Tuthill has “proven time and time again how great of a company they are to work with.” She also explains how Marathon Labels’ meticulousness working process helps new projects start off right.
“We do our due-diligence for the onboarding of all parts. And because of this initial step, it creates a smooth-sailing relationship. It’s just one of the many ways we help our customers.”
