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How Do You Deal with an Unsafe Customer Location?

July 1, 2020
What happens when an electrician working for electrical services firm finds unsafe conditions on a customer’s site?

One of the downsides of the electrical services industry is not every client company is safety-oriented. In fact, some have downright appalling conditions. Let’s take a look at some examples that a firm in Tennessee ran into:

  • Boxes of fluorescent lamps stored in equipment closet (mid-size factory).
  • Fuel containers (gas cans) stored in same room as electrical panel (small commercial building).
  • Extreme dust, due to process conditions. A small plant with a plastics cutting operation had black dust over everything. The dust wasn’t combustible, but it wasn’t exactly good for your lungs either.
  • Open neutrals on many branch circuits (small factory). This was discovered after the electrician received a shock upon touching a handle on a cabinet door. Unbalanced current was flowing back to the source through metallic objects.
  • Standard 120V receptacle installed in a wall of a room that was classified a hazardous location, Class II, Div 1 (small processing plant). Gee, no danger of arc fault or sparks with 120V, right?
  • Portable cords run all over the floor, presenting a tripping hazard (small factory). Many of these had copious amounts of black tape on them, apparently to “repair” damage done by people walking on them or rolling things over them.

On the one hand, it seems rude to go into someone else’s “home” and start complaining. On the other hand, unsafe conditions can lead to severe injury or death.

The owners of this electrical services firm were more concerned about protecting people than avoiding the possibility of insulting a customer. They also decided to look at the problem as an opportunity.

The sales engineers were instructed to do a walk-through with the customer as part of determining the job scope. They were trained in how to look for safety problems and turn them into upsells. They could have simply pointed out that all the portable cord were a tripping hazard. But the customer probably already knew that and was tolerating the unsafe condition as if other options were not available. The key was to present other options. In this particular case, the sales engineer pointed out where receptacles could go and asked the customer, “Would you like those instead of having to deal with all these cords?”

In the plant with the extreme dust, during the walkthrough the sales engineer asked his client if he liked the dust. The adamantly negative answer opened the door to discussing some kind of dust handler to be located right at the source.

If properly trained, sales engineers can dramatically reduce the unsafe conditions their company’s electricians encounter. Properly framing the problem and then offering a solution that takes the pain away makes the upsell compelling.

What if something that didn’t show up on the walk-through occurs? That’s what happened with the open neutrals. The electrician got some measurements and contacted the home office. A sales engineer was onsite less than half an hour later. The plant’s owners had been completely unaware of this problem, and it was easy to fix. Consequently, this firm became their “go to” firm for electrical work from that point forward.

About the Author

Mark Lamendola

Mark is an expert in maintenance management, having racked up an impressive track record during his time working in the field. He also has extensive knowledge of, and practical expertise with, the National Electrical Code (NEC). Through his consulting business, he provides articles and training materials on electrical topics, specializing in making difficult subjects easy to understand and focusing on the practical aspects of electrical work.

Prior to starting his own business, Mark served as the Technical Editor on EC&M for six years, worked three years in nuclear maintenance, six years as a contract project engineer/project manager, three years as a systems engineer, and three years in plant maintenance management.

Mark earned an AAS degree from Rock Valley College, a BSEET from Columbia Pacific University, and an MBA from Lake Erie College. He’s also completed several related certifications over the years and even was formerly licensed as a Master Electrician. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE and past Chairman of the Kansas City Chapters of both the IEEE and the IEEE Computer Society. Mark also served as the program director for, a board member of, and webmaster of, the Midwest Chapter of the 7x24 Exchange. He has also held memberships with the following organizations: NETA, NFPA, International Association of Webmasters, and Institute of Certified Professional Managers.

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