If everyone uses and understands the same approach, then most of the heavy lifting has been done, and only minor details need to be worked out. The problem with missed delivery dates is that usually the missed delivery does not become apparent until after the date has passed, and it is too late to make any adjustments. As soon as your company starts posting shipment status information in a format that makes it accessible to your customers, however, there is no hiding. The lesson for us was simple - customers must be updated continuously on the status of their orders, and any deviation from what we have told them will be questioned. The Internet, if used properly, does change this problem, but it requires the metals company to be honest with its customers.
Metals are commodities.
Get used to it. The days of relationship selling are not over, but the days of a salesperson laboriously entering line items from a faxed quote, or spending 20 minutes talking to a customer may be coming to a close. Or at least they may be changing. We have given up a little control on how the customer interacts with us, in that we don't have an inside salesperson asking for an order, but in return we have made the entire order process more efficient. This is the only way that we will as an industry see the widespread adoption of electronic commerce within our lifetimes.