Why? Not merely because they give us their hard-earned money in exchange for our single-use gloves and singular marketing and sales knowledge (although that surely doesn’t hurt).
One of the most common questions we get, whether from calls to our customer service line or asked of our reps at trade shows, is “Are disposable gloves food safe?”
We love the fact that our customers are not easily satisfied.
That has been one of AMMEX’s central tenets over our 35-plus years in business. It prevents taking anybody for granted and motivates us to do whatever it takes to keep customers happy.
Janitorial & sanitation businesses need predictability and consistency. No one likes surprises, especially when it comes to their hand protection.
Those “bargain” disposable gloves that promised savings of a couple bucks per box? Maybe they hold up OK with light-duty tasks. But maybe they don’t—and workers ended up with glove after glove ripping, or leaking when working with cleaning solutions, or shredding when even the slightest resistance is met.
How much does customer service matter in the disposable glove industry?
To be honest, some folks likely don’t rate it as a prerequisite to doing business. Disposable gloves are a commodity operating in what can be a purely transactional universe. How much for the gloves? Great. Here’s your money. Next?
Historically, people who work on cars and trucks have not widely used disposable gloves. For generations of mechanics, hand protection simply was not a big concern.
Why? In many cases—at least until the last couple decades—they lacked the information they needed to make the right choice for safety. Heck, even today the industry is only 120 or so years old. The evolution to new ideas can be long and laborious.
During the pandemic, many distributors scrambled to find a glove vendor—while others dropped products altogether, including single-use gloves, because of the difficulty and/or cost of obtaining them.
Have you asked why you are buying from your current disposable glove vendor? Now might be the time to make sure that your organization has a clear understanding of what differentiates your suppliers.
Most disposable glove factories prefer to run their production lines almost non-stop to make money, in a concept known as factory utilization. It is common that a factory needs a 50% utilization rate to break even.
Throughout 2023, factory utilization rates for most of the disposable glove industry have been well below 50% because of massive capacity added during the pandemic and high excess inventory amounts at the end-user level.
We frequently hear from customers who say they bought gloves from another vendor at a low price, but they can’t find that deal again. In fact, that vendor can’t seem to source the glove at all.
If you’re an industrial distributor, you’ve likely come across vendors who can’t be trusted to consistently deliver what you need at a price that works for you. Sure, it’s nice to save a few bucks here or there on a case of gloves, but can you count on that arrangement to hold up over time?