It wasn’t very long ago, working as a promotional products end-user client that I thought of product safety as pretty much a black and white issue. Products were either safe, or they weren’t.
If you’re sourcing and buying promotional products, and keeping up with the increasing discussion and awareness of product safety and compliance in our industry, you likely know that’s not the case. Safe promotional products are more like a volume knob on the TV, turned up a little now, turned down a little later. Safety and compliance live in shades of grey. Answers always come with conditions and are couched in a phrase that’s become pretty standard: “it depends.” That’s what makes the subject a difficult and complex one that many still choose to avoid.
Last week, you may have heard about a voluntary recall being conducted by Top 50 Supplier Jetline Promo. While just one of 31,000 adapter/chargers had shown the potential to overheat, this QCA-accredited supplier chose the conservative approach of voluntarily recalling all of them. A recall is a situation that inevitably causes a lot of hype and it definitely churns the industry discussion. But the reality of the product safety volume knob is that it’s not IF, but WHEN a recall will happen. It could, without question, happen to you. I spoke with Jetline CEO Eric Levin about the recall as I began to write this article and he said, “I find it hard to believe that others haven’t had a similar situation. We hope that by a Top 50, QCA-certified supplier setting an example and leading the way, others will follow suit. Jetline wants to be first in a ‘not-if-but-when’ situation. There were those in the industry who tried to capitalize on the media hype, but for the most part our decision was looked at as ‘Thanks for setting the tone and sending the correct message out.'”
As for the actual process Jetline used, Levin remarked, “The CPSC says that you must report if you believe that a product may even have a potential to be hazardous. The QCA accreditation process has various exercises that prepare the company for a recall scenario, including going through a mock recall exercise.” According to Dee Fenton, executive director-compliance for QCA, “In a recall situation, having well-established business processes supports success of the recall, reduction of risk to the end-user and, ultimately, your brand.“
On choosing to undertake a voluntary recall, Jetline’s Levin continued, “Reporting to the CSPC does not automatically mean that the Commission will conclude that corrective action is necessary, but it allows for an open and honest dialogue to work together to make sure there are safe products in the stream of commerce.”
For those that might still have a black or white view of product safety, the “Scarlet Letter” of a first recall could be bad for business. Not so, says Levin, “We found the larger distributor partners that we regularly work with praised us, actually felt peace of mind, and will give us more business based on our actions. Sometimes being a leader in key areas like this helps your business. I say if you sweep it under the rug, or pretend it didn’t happen, or decide to ignore it all together—and a consumer reports an issue or gets injured, that’s when the Scarlet Letter should come out.”
How about you, would your business take a stand for what’s right for the end-user? Levin has some advice if you’re on the fence; “I hope based on the reaction we got from our top distributor partners that suppliers read this interview and see that we are living proof of it. We had some record sales days for July last week. So, clearly those who are hesitant, shouldn’t be. Sometimes in business you have to do what is right, not what is best for your business. In this case, it actually is working out to be both for Jetline.”
