Powerful storms moved across North Texas early on April 10, 2008, spawning tornadoes and high windstorms that stripped roofs from homes and uprooted mature trees. Hail pounded property and broke windows. When dawn broke, a quarter of a million homes and businesses - including Performance Pipe's Plano Texas headquarters - were left without electricity.
The first employees arrived at the office to find broken glass, a sagging ceiling, no power, no phones, no faxes, and no network. Just darkness and quiet. A whole lot of quiet.
With a shared common goal of serving their customers, the Performance Pipe team quickly implemented their business interruption plan to assess damage, initiate building repairs, and set up an alternate headquarters site in the lobby of the nearby Hampton Inn. Sharing laptops and cell phones, Performance Pipe's customer service, logistics, scheduling, and pricing staffs were back at work in short order meeting customer's needs, entering orders, arranging truckloads and quoting new projects without interruptions to plant shipments. By 7:30 p.m. the power had returned and the computing staff worked through the evening to safely restoring the computers, network, and phone systems back to full capacity.
The commitment of the men and women of Performance Pipe to provide the highest level of service to their customers was severely tested. But with the strong efforts of every member of the Performance Pipe team, what could have been a disastrous day instead became a reaffirmation of the importance of providing quality customer service. The pipe team accomplished a lot, learned a lot, and had some fun along the way.