Top 5 Customer Questions Answered By A Symmetry Application Engineer

Hi! Nimit Pradhan here to answer the top 5 most frequently asked questions by customers. I'm one of the Applican Engineers here at Symmetry Electronics. 

1. Can you help me find the best product, supplier and technology based on my application requirements?

Understanding customer requirements is critical and this is where Symmetry adds value. Our sales and technical marketing engineering team focus on understanding customer requirements completely. Then we identify the best solution for the customer from our wireless product portfolio. Next, our Sales and Application Engineering team demonstrate the benefits of our products to meet the customer needs. I like to call this process as “product selection” which is the start of our relationship with a customer.

2. Can you help me find a similar product?

Sometimes a customer already knows their product requirements and they’ll come to Symmetry for an alternative. We’ll work to provide a better deal as far as price, stock availability, lead time and technical support.

3. What are some pros and cons of this technology, product or supplier?

This can vary widely. A few factors I look at are:

Differentiator of the product and supplier
Is this a cheaper solution than the competitor's solution? I look at the trade off between price and product features
Advantages/disadvantages as compared to other technologies and products
Factor in the development timeline and time to market with the solution we are suggesting

For example, Silicon Labs has a great technical team available on their end as well as technical resources on their website. Their Application Engineers are globally situated. Working with suppliers like this reduces time to market and eases of the workload of the customer from beginning to end.

4. What is the lead time for development kits, samples and production volumes?

This varies depending on the part number and supplier. Symmetry will do whatever we can to make lead times as short as possible.

5. Is there a local supplier or Symmetry Field Application Engineer available? How much tech support from Symmetry or the supplier will be provided to the customer?

Here’s where we bring a lot of value through our Application Engineers. Customer support is readily available to customers by live chat, phone or email, helping them in multiple ways: reducing time to market, making the design stage easier and resolving technical issues along the way. Technical support can sometimes make or break a deal. For small businesses or startups, good technical support from a distributor is even more critical to make sure the design reaches the end of its cycle and the product is completed. We also help communicate between the supplier and the end customer acting as a liaison and making sure their issues are resolved. Symmetry’s technical support makes sure that the customer is never stuck in their design or prototyping phase and that they always have assistance when needed.

I can also build you a custom antenna kit. To get started head over to this page and answer a few short questions.