Dear Customers, Suppliers, Associates, and Friends of CBT,
I hope this letter finds you and your families happy and healthy. As we all round out a rather challenging year, I would love to share a few important themes that have come to the forefront for CBT.
First, being open and willing to change is key to growth – both personally and professionally. What felt like overnight, our entire company became a remote workforce. Many were nervous about using technology that had previously been available but not yet required. How would we stay connected and effective? How could we depend on technology versus physically working alongside one another? Others were thrilled with the challenge of it all; excited to set up their remote workspaces and working to become adept at using MS Teams for their primary mode of communication while truly creating new habits. Both groups worked hard every day to learn new programs and tools, overcoming unique obstacles, and learning a new way of doing business. Everyone did a phenomenal job, never missing a beat. For this shift to go unnoticeable to customers is a testament to the exceptional service our team was able to maintain, and in some cases, further improve.
The second theme that is abundantly clear – nothing will stop us from being customer-driven. Our core value of always listening to the voice of the customer has been our path to growth. Our customer and partner needs drive our offerings and services, and this year is no exception. In addition to selling the best of the best in products, we are elevating our Client Service offerings and expertise to better serve our customers’ needs. Our Belting Service team remains hard at work keeping our customers’ plant floors running, our Technical Service team is capable of assisting our short-staffed customers with critical upgrades for safer, more secure networks, and as budgets tighten across many industries, our Mechanical and Electrical Repair teams continue to help our customers advance. Our technical knowledge of robotics, cybersecurity, industrial networking, and remote monitoring are unparalleled in our industry. Excitedly, we were recognized for the 6th year as a ‘Top Workplace in Cincinnati’. One employee’s contribution to the anonymous surveys that fuel the award, exemplifies our ‘Customer First’ mentality and action.
“No job goes unfinished. Customers need [us] and they are always taken care of or provided a possible solution. Teamwork is everything here. [CBT’s] people will always help you….”
Last, we can all forget the idea of ‘normal’ or ‘status quo’. It simply does not exist anymore. Everyone must continue to innovate and adapt on all fronts. As an example, historically our in-house training and development events have been excellent. Without the in-person abilities of the past, we have now adapted and are utilizing new digital platforms for external interactive webinars, internal employee product training, and industry-specific forums. Our most recent webinar was focused on Cyber Security and was well received by many. I could not have predicted 45 years ago in 1975, when I purchased the company, that this would be our reality today! This year we even brought on our new VP of Marketing from outside the industry, further challenging the norm to improve our customer’s experience.
To Our Customers: Thank you for your business! We greatly appreciate the opportunity to work for you. If we ever forget to express our appreciation, I apologize. We look forward to serving you for many years to come.
To Our Suppliers: Thank you for your continued support and direction. We are proud to partner with you.
To All At CBT: Congratulations on being recognized by the business community for your efforts and all that you do to make CBT a very successful company.
In closing, we are looking forward to a remarkable 2021 with you all! It will be CBT’s centennial, and we are thrilled to share this landmark occasion with our customers, partners, and friends of CBT. We could not have made it here without you and are grateful for each one of you, every single day.
P.S. Our eight grandchildren are doing well. The oldest is back in the classroom teaching second grade, her younger sister is working remotely for a bank, three are back on college campuses, and the youngest three are working hard in high school.
