We really appreciate the time this customer took to let us know we helped him. What a surprise when he turned to be an MD and director of a hospital. It made his letter even more satisfying because his expertise is the body, how it moves, what it takes to move the body and how posture uses different muscle groups.
We are grateful for Dr. Waggoner’s comments on our customer service and the level of education and problem solving we provide. He’s got all of us glowing. Thank you Dr. Waggoner!
Below is Dr. Waggoner’s testimonial and details of the story behind it.
Karen Burke, President
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Testimonial 6/14 Customer Service testimonial
“I would like to … offer my thanks, to you and most particularly to Craig. I wrote an e-mail complaining about a mistake, …and although…the mistake was actually mine… you folks responded with a genuine concern that things weren’t right. You never mentioned the topic of who was responsible for the problem. Further, your concern was incredibly professional. Having spent 40 years in one of America’s most beleaguered service industries, I can say with authority, “You’re the best! You truly are.” This impression was furthered when I heard about the work you do for our veterans–both young and old. I believe my sister quoted Craig describing his company as a “Boulder Cottage industry”–or something to that effect. If so, it would seem to be a cottage populated by folks who have been sprinkled with the greatest of all magical powders–compassion, altruism, and intelligent common sense.”
With Great Respect,
Jeffrey R. Waggoner, MD
Chief of Staff, Weisbrod Memorial Hospital, ER, and ECU
Sometimes there is an issue with discomfort when sitting. In this case, this gentleman had purchased a Kare Drafting Chair and was very happy with it but there seemed to be some issues with sitting in an upright position. He designed an in-house standing desk to reduce compression to his abdominal area. He explained how he needed to be able to recline a little to be comfortable. And he did not want his back to always rock, he needed it to have a locking ability so he could angle the chair back in a slight recline position and lock it wherever he wants.
The Kare Ergonomic expert asked a number of questions about his goals, such as what is he trying to create and what does he expect the outcomes to be.
It turns out that he is most comfortable when he can change from sitting to standing. And when sitting he needs a chair back that can adjust in small increments of recline. And he certainly needed all the other parts of the chair to adjust, like being able to set the seat depth to fit his leg length.
We felt his solution of using a draft chair introduced a new issue when getting in and out of chair because he would have to over use the abdominal muscles and that would increase the current issues.
We proposed he change his current solution and use a desk-height chair instead of the draft-height chair to eliminate the over-use of the abdominal muscles.
Then use a sit to stand desk that has the height adjustments to fit him. This ensures that he is always in a comfortable working position whether sitting or standing. It also permitted easy height adjustments to the height of the desk so he can quickly reduce fatigue whether sitting or standing.
The root issues are that he was never comfortable sitting and would stand for relief but then standing became uncomfortable. And the area of his body that let the most discomfort was the abdominals.
As in any design process it works best if the goals are always kept in mind. When you start to design around a particular item that is not really at the best height for you then you are at best just putting a Band-Aid on the problem, often increasing discomfort. The goal of this customer was to reduce the compression on his abdominal area. He had all the right ideas but the solutions were at a struggle with each other and thus did not meet his needs. We helped him get the ergonomic product solutions to work together. Yes, this was a more complex situation that needed some extra time, but we have passion for ergonomic support that makes a difference in people’s lives.
Craig Stewart
Ergonomic Evaluator
VP Technical