At IBVI it’s our goal to provide “endless possibilities” to our customers, going above and beyond to serve them. It’s not uncommon for our passionate staff to go above and beyond in order to supply our military and government partners with quality products. While our product catalog of machine and hand-assembled products continues to grow, we do everything in our power to source products that aren’t assembled or kept at our facilities too.
In our last “We Found It” blog, we talked about some of the most interesting kitchen related product orders requested from some almost unbelievable customers. While it’s fun to hear about some of the hyper specific details from our most memorable orders, this blog will focus on the big picture of how IBVI’s dedicated staff can seemingly source anything, anywhere, anytime.
Building strong, attentive and meaningful relationships
As an organization, IBVI has always been focused on building trusting relationships with both our employees and customers. With more than half of IBVI’s staff consisting of people who are blind or visually impaired, IBVI takes great pride in being an organization that’s dedicated to making necessary accommodations. In the same way that IBVI offers transportation and career advancement services to their employees, they strive to service and meet the needs of their customers.
Because of our strong track record, going the extra mile to procure products of all kinds, we’ve been able to develop strong relationships with high ranking officials of various government organizations and with our mission partners. Due to the many times we’ve sourced products outside of our “normal product line”, countless organizations have placed their trust in IBVI’s BSC as their primary source of procurement.
The process of procurement
For most orders at IBVI, our team will browse the internet to search out possible sources and work with buyers/suppliers to get the best pricing and make sure we can get the items to our client in a timely manner. From there our staff will communicate over the phone and via email to sort out the exact details of the order, communicating with both the supplier and the client to make sure the order will fulfill their needs.
“It’s really special to be a part of an organization that truly puts people first, whether it’s our customers or our crew members,” said CEO and President CJ Lange. “One customer (and many others have) said that they consider themselves extremely lucky to have a supplier like IBVI that can work their ‘magic’ to help provide for their customers.”
Once the items have been sourced, we do absolutely anything that needs to be done to get the order across the finish line. Sometimes that means picking up items from our vendors after work hours. One of the most bizarre orders came from The Walter Reed Health Veterinary Services (at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research) when they reached out with an urgent request for crickets to feed their population of iguanas and geckos. By working with our vendor, Bottom Line, they were able to help us find a local vendor, helping us to get the crickets to the WRAIR in time for dinner.
Other orders are less about the ‘who’ and more about the ‘where’. Working with military and government organizations, we’ve delivered orders to all kinds of places including Camp David, The WRAIR on the outskirts of Washington D.C., and even to the 167th Air Wing of the WV Air National Guard in Martinsburg, WV.
No matter what it is that your organization needs to procure or where it needs to be delivered, you can trust that the ‘who’ of IBVI will always include you. For many years IBVI has carried a reputation for being leaders in customer service and accommodation. Whatever it is you need, we’ll find it for you.
Find all of our latest blog content about meaningful employment, innovations and more procurement stories at https://ibvi.org/blog/
