I think your answer to barrel lead time also answers your main question, where do you think all those barrels are going?
The guys that do a good job are getting them all and they are just busy as hell. Mark Gordon is a good friend and it seems he's always working 6 or 7 days and until 7 o'clock every day. You know what he's doing most of that time now? Answering emails.
Gunsmithing is a tough thing to do to a level of workmanship like SAC for example, and also be able to grow the business. Because of how hard it is to find help from someone who is capable of doing the same quality of work that customers have come to expect from the original Smith, and without him watching over their shoulders the whole time.
Another thing is you can't just hire some schmo to answer phones and emails for you because the questions are always quite technical.
This is not an excuse for guys out there not answering new customer calls or emails, those guys are probably either what you envision, "too special," or just so busy and can't get the help they really need around the shop.
this is pretty close to what i experience...
i must admit, i can't get everything done in one day that i'd like. i simply can't. when you're a larger shop, personnel and organization are tough. when you're a one man shop, you have to do everything. ...and i mean everything. i find myself somewhere in the middle...
an average day for me starts at 5AM all week. i can't take off saturdays or sundays... i go out and start up the shop and work until 6:30 by myself. i typically do billing and open up the mail from the previous day, and write checks, etc. i go back into the house before 7 to get my daughter up, brush her hair, etc. and get her ready for baby school and then take her into town. i'm back by 7:30 and continue with electronic items - emails, forum posts, adding content to the facebook page, working on articles and help questions for customers and gun geeks. by 9AM Dave, Paul, and our part time guys (occasionally) are at work and rolling. i can't allow anything out of the shop i wouldn't be impressed to own myself, so there is plenty of help and oversight throughout the day. i wear a portable head set so i can literally talk to customers while i work. when folks call in with cc information for orders, i have to drop what i'm doing and log into our online system, take their cc information, run it through, and provide them a receipt both from our cc service, and then from our business system showing a 'paid' receipt. most all want it emailed, so then we need to do that. sometimes i stop for lunch, most times not. breaks? don't get them... the guys do, and i want them to take a few minutes away to visit, joke, etc. or they'll be uptight and stressed, and i don't want that for them. they work better and are happier when they aren't burdened with extra problems and can step back for a few moments throughout the day.
i'm taking care of walk ins, and handling their questions, comments, and concerns, while trying to balance the limited time i can spend with them as i try not to neglect the work i already have setting in front of me. time to lay down some cerakote, and while it's curing, i have time to mix up batch and skim bed three rifles, i put them away, and stone a 1911, work over the sear and hammer, and hand it off to paul for cerakote prep, then answer some more calls, etc. all the while i have emails coming in, shop calls going to voice mail, and calls i missed on my personal cell phone (of which many customers have). i transcribe all the messages to text (with an app so it is fast and easy) and it prints out. i grab the print out throughout the day and i'm calling those people back right down the line with my head set on as i work on projects, pass work along, inspect work, and diagnose failures. there are times that machine noise, etc. simply won't allow me to do that of course, so i miss some that way as well.
couple that with the fact i'm the complaint department, human resources department, marketing manager in charge of website content, scheduling our classes, marketing our product on facebook, twitter, linkedin, and youtube, as well as the many forums we sponsor like the hide (of course), etc., but i'm also the shipping and receiving clerk, billing agent, order entry and restocking attendant, and general bad guy to the help... lol. i'm sure i missed some things, but you get the picture. my daughter comes home around 5 and by that time the guys in the shop are leaving. she and i visit as she pounds stuff with little hammer beside me at the bench and we visit for a while. she heads in the house and i come in somewhere between 7 & 9 depending on what needed to be finished. i try to cut saturdays and sundays off by lunch time every chance i get, but here i am at 8am on sunday... been out here since 4:40am and i'll be here long past lunch today. that's the job... add bullshit paperwork to the state, the state department, the atf, the irs, remitting sales tax, annual reporting, audits, internal audit trail reviews, etc. and your time can really get snatched up...
it is important you all don't see my description above as a complaint. it isn't. it simply is the way small business works. you can apply this to gunsmithing, plumbing, hauling rock, or widget building. i enjoy doing great work. i am happy with the reflection of my customers as they see the work i/we put into their firearm needs. we're not afraid to charge for what we do, as we do a great job and when we exceed your expectations, we have every intention of being compensated well. i genuinely feel terrible when i know i haven't contacted somebody back in a timely fashion. things move pretty quickly around our shop, so i sometimes misplace a note, or call a guy back and he returns my call without a message, thus i forget that his missed call was a call to me for a call back to him, etc.
i work my butt off to make sure i respond back as quickly as possible. why? because that's what i'd want if i was on the other end. i can't speak for the other smiths, but i truly believe nobody aims to neglect a customer. sometimes things fall between the cracks, but that is really not an excuse. work harder, and work smarter...
the interesting things about smiths and what they do is this... the people, suppliers, and vendors we deal with on a daily basis RARELY accommodate our needs. almost never... they don't answer the phone consistently, they don't respond to emails quickly, they don't adhere to pricing quotes often, they NEVER make delivery dates they provide, and often give us any number of bullshit problems to conquer once the late product finally arrives... we get patterned with this behavior and have to fight with all our being to resist doing to our customers (the end user) what we experience 50 times a day. there can be six layers of middle men as a piece of metal is cast, then bought and machined, then bought and plated, then bought and distributed, then distributed and shipped to me, but when i don't get it installed and done quickly for my customer, i'm where the buck stops. that's the gig, and i signed on for it. so the fact that five other entities completely out of my control shape my destiny is tough damned luck. i'm accountable to my customer as the end user and i know i'll catch some heat from time to time...
smithing requires concentration, so i can only do the 'talk on the phone while working' thing while i'm working on certain projects. attention to detail isn't something you can really do while doing another thing simultaneously. thus, the demands on your 'daylight' time are rough. i've had customers as recently as a few days ago, send me an email at 8PM, then call the shop at 9PM (one hour later) and mention that they hadn't gotten a return correspondence from me yet. i want to respond as quickly as possible, but not only do i not want to do that after supper, i think it is a bad idea for me to start. i know my shop is located a whopping 25 yards from my house, but i have to disengage from business from time to time or i'd go nuts. besides, to be frank, my wife and daughter are more important. if you want a good smith or a good employee working on your stuff, you want a person who is well adjusted at home and has their priorities straight too. i try like hell to get folks called back within 48 hours or less but i've been burned down on forums when i haven't sent a return email within a few hours. sometimes in a fast paced world, we have to take a step back and chill...
smithing is a tough game, but a rewarding one for me. i only hope to attain some honest reflection of my shortcomings, correct them as best i can, bolster my good attributes and seek to continually go above and beyond for my customers. that, an occasional miracle, and some latitude from my customers, and we'll all be in tall cotton...
i hope my post doesn't come off as anything but an insight. i don't want the OP or anyone else to suffer a true lack of customer appreciation. some of us simply do a better job than others with customer care. i hope to take ours to the next level, and the next level after that. i'm proud of what we get done, but we have a long way to go to get where i'd like to be. thanks for your patience with CCA, and if your smith is worth it, be honest with him/her and extend it to them. i hope they reciprocate with integrity and the willingness to work hard for you.
~michael
behind on sending barrels out the door. (I did, however, find one of their distributors that happened to have the barrel I wanted in stock and bought that!!) The second one was my chosen synthetic stockmaker, where I talked to the guy that founded the company! The remaining 3 have not called or Emailed me back at all....not one attempt to get back to me out of that bunch of 3. 
