I live in the mountains of northern Georgia in a town of about 1,700 people. Tourism is a big industry here because we’re nestled in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains. People come here to hike, camp and do all of the “outdoors stuff” you can’t do in Atlanta, 80 miles to the South. In our small town we have the usual stuff tourists like and some of the things they might miss when they leave home for a weekend away; like Starbucks. That’s right, a town of 1,700 people but we’ve got a Starbucks. Go figure.
My mother lives about an hour away so she comes to visit fairly regularly. On one such visit we were headed out to a softball tournament for my daughters when I popped into Starbucks to grab a coffee, with my not-exactly-cosmopolitan-mother in tow. As we walked inside, mom mentioned how good it smelled and then looked up at the menu board. With a confused look on her face she said, “I just want a small coffee. Is that up there?”
I’ve been going to Starbucks for ages now, so I know how to order what I want but my mom on the other hand, does not. With so many choices, none of which were familiar to her, she was forced to rely on my suggestion, which was based on what I knew she liked. Had she wandered in to Starbucks alone however, I’m sure the helpful baristas would have endeavored to help her choose, but alas, they don’t know my mom. Plus, their job is to sell coffee, so they might be inclined to suggest a non-fat, low-foam, mocha latte with caramel syrup for a ONLY $6.35, when mom just wanted some plain old coffee, preferably weak enough you could see through it. She would have been out nearly $7, dissatisfied, and probably wouldn’t darken the door of Starbucks again.
 An infrared image of the Starbucks in my hometown. |
Her situation is much like those faced by newbie thermographers. The boss reads an article on thermal imaging and the money it saved “XYZ Industries”, goes to his best maintenance guy and says “we need this, figure it out”. The company approves an expenditure to purchase a thermal imager and before you know it, our trusty maintenance guy finds himself walking into the thermal imaging equivalent of Starbucks. Nowhere on the menu board does it say “Imager, thermal type, industrial maintenance applicable” but there is a “Mocha-frappe-microbolometer, focal plane array with no whip, high-resolution decaf espresso”
The thermographer, without some idea of what they are looking for, and with no one accompanying him down this path, is forced to rely on the proverbial “Thermal Imaging Barista” (a.k.a. The Sales Rep). This individual will most definitely sell him the one with the highest margin or the one that they’ve been directed to move the most. “Trusty the Thermographer” is then out $5-10K (or worse), has no idea what he just bought and probably is disgusted by the entire process. The infrared imager market is vastly different than it was only a decade ago. There are companies out there that offer infrared cameras right next to hammer drills in their catalog. Making a top notch hammer drill though, doesn’t make one an expert in thermal imagers. So, how good is that imager? Unless you can spend some time with that particular imager in your hand, you really don’t know. If you don’t try it out, monkey around with, and really get a feel for it until after you’ve made a purchase, you may have the kind of buyer’s remorse that my mom would have had with that $6.35 “coffee”.
So, what do you do with all of these complex choices? Ask questions. Demand demos in your facility, inspecting your equipment. Even Starbucks has sample cups; they’ll let you try a couple of blends to see if you like them. Your camera sales rep should as well! You don’t want to buy too much camera or too little. If you ask to use a camera for a day or two in your plant, and the guy trying to sell you one refuses, that might be a sign that you’re talking to the wrong person. You need to know things about what you’re buying before you buy it. Things like, can you see the display with your face shield on? Can you manipulate the buttons with an FR gloves? Is it rated to be in both your boiler room with a 100F ambient temp and outside in the winter with 10F temperatures?
At Starbucks, my mom had me there, so I could guide her through the ordering process and I consider myself pretty well informed with regard to the menu choices. I also consider myself well-informed on thermal imagers, as are my colleagues. So, take us with you when you shop. Well, not literally, but the next best thing is to try our free webinar on camera purchasing. We tell you things to look for, what those weird specifications you’ve never heard of mean, and try as best we can to help you determine how much camera you need for what you’re planning to do with it. It’s almost as good as taking us along with you and the price is right: free!