“Customers don’t expect you to be perfect. They expect you to fix things when they go wrong.” Donald Porter, the former Vice President of British Airways, said.
While the sporting goods industry may not overlap much with the airline industry (thankfully), this statement remains valid. Bison’s attention to detail in design and manufacturing is matched only by its strategic focus on providing the best customer service in the industry. With premium structural features, safety baked into the design and testing process, and extensive warranty support, product failures of Bison equipment in the field are rare but often require another level of service and, in the case below, a re-design to prevent future problems.
A recent case study involves a residential basketball system that was more than 10 years old. In December, a customer requested help from a Bison dealer to source parts to repair the original crank and breakaway goal and received a quote (plus some bonus advice on painting a new shooter’s square on the acrylic backboard). In May, he reached out again asking if Bison had experienced any issues with these cranks and explained the stop had failed and the crank separated at a rim height just below the official 10’.
Since the design of the crank needed to be reviewed, Bison’s CEO Nick Cusick became involved in the discussion. After consulting with Bison’s engineering department, the stop was immediately redesigned to avoid this type of failure, a safety notice was mailed to those that had received this style of replacement crank, and customer service was made aware of the potential problem. A modified-design replacement crank was shipped by express service to the customer who brought this to our dealer’s attention in a two-week timeframe and other past customers were also shipped new replacement cranks even though no other failure reports had been made. The customer shipped the defective crank back for in-person inspection and testing.
This West Virginia father e-mailed, “This is great timing, [my son’s] Freshman basketball practice for the high school starts tonight. We have been shooting on an old molded plastic freestanding hoop we had for my younger son to shoot on for the interim. I can’t thank you enough for your attention to this. I hate this happened, but I am very appreciative of the response from you and the company. If I can write a review for you, please let me know.”
Since Bison’s first product launch in 1985, much has changed in the industry and many dealers and end users now choose the least expensive option from an online source. But, the value in purchasing equipment that has safety-minded, real people who care about providing quality and service is highlighted in this not-so-unusual story of a soon-to-be high school student and his father’s support of his basketball dreams. American manufacturing can be a challenging business, and 2025 is no exception, but Bison will continue to be available by phone, e-mail, and chat to support our dealers and their customers.