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The Importance of Key Account Customer Service in the B2B Era
The Importance of Key Account Customer Service in the B2B Era
KA, short for "Key Account", means directing customer service towards important customers.
Shanghai,
Shanghai,
China
(prbd.net)
02/08/2010
Now, that we have entered the age of service economy client management is the top priority. Furthermore, customer service management is a very important part client management.
Customer service management is first of all a management concept. The core of customer service management is to consider the customers the most important resource of a company. Using good customer service and thorough customer analysis to fulfill the customers’ demands ensures a lifelong relationship with customers. Furthermore, It is a new way of management aimed at perfecting the relationship between the company and the customers. It brings together marketing, sales, service, and technology support in the field of customer relations. It demands that the company shifts from thinking of products as the most important component to thinking of the customers as being most important. That is to say that the focus of any company should shift is primary focus towards customer relationships rather than towards internal operations.
Consider, once, the importance of customer service.
In regard to B2B, the goods are being sold on faith; the customer can not make an immediate profit. So, the question is how we can make the customers trust us. What matters is honesty, enthusiasm, and a high level of service throughout the entire process. Nothing is more damaging to any company than getting a bad reputation. When customers retract their orders, return goods, or complain, it is hard to know if it is only because they suspect that something is wrong with the products. Customer service is not a source of profit and it is certainly not something that directly secures economic outcomes. In some ways it might actually be considered an expense.
Today, when it comes to the field of B2B, that is developing rapidly, the main concern of those doing B2B is how to secure an even higher degree of service, and thus securing that the customers will get a higher outcome. The users of B2B are different from those of B2C and those visit news pages. Those kinds of businesses only care about profit, and orders. This must be considered when you are doing online B2B; the customers’ needs must always come first.
B2B and supply chains all over the world are concerned with globalization, complexity, and the development in customer actuation. Globalization is stretching the supply chains, and the number of business partners is also increasing. Different business partners have different needs, standards, and demands. The integration of trade and manufacturing processes has made supply chains quite complex. This means that B2B must focus on renewal and innovation. Experts who have followed the B2B profession for a long time indicate that the B2B profession will not be the same in the future. Besides providing information, business opportunities and other things, the most important task will be to provide high quality service. This service isn't only about handling the customers requests or complaints. It is about securing the customers more orders and better outcome. The consumers don't care if a web site looks good or not. They don't care how many advertisements there are on your web site. They care about getting orders, and they care about the quality of the products. The customers are business men, so of course they care mostly about profit.
Easy2Bid is something as rare as a platform that facilitates trade both from China to Europe and from Europe to China. Therefore Easy2Bid can provide KA service to both China suppliers and European buyers. Easy2Bid have expert European key account managers, who check the information of the western buyers to ensure that is truthful. This means that the China manufacturers don't have anything to fear. Many suppliers receive a lot of false or redundant information from some of the famous B2B web sites, and some suppliers are even cheated. An even larger number of suppliers don't receive any requests or orders at all, and this is the biggest concern for customers. Foreign key account managers can help the customers check out the buyers’ information, which means that suppliers don't have to worry about false information. At the same time, when European buyers have posted a buying request, the foreign key account managers, will contact the buyers and recommend good suppliers. If the suppliers have any needs the foreign key account managers can assist them in communicating with the buyers.
This is an example from Easy2Bid: One Chinese supplier gave a price to a European buyer. The buyer was quite satisfied with both the product and the price, and he wrote the supplier with some questions about export and transportation. But, because the supplier didn't understand the meaning of the questions, the deal came to a stalemate, which frustrated both the supplier and the buyer. Easy2bid's foreign key account managers discovered that the deal had come to a halt, and they contacted the European buyer, inquiring into the nature of the problem. They then proceeded to explain the situation to buyer and supplier alike, and in the end the deal was completed.
Moreover, it is difficult for Chinese suppliers to understand culture and customs of Europe. One example of this is summertime, and if one fails to understand this, problems can easily arise due to time differences. If you can not communicate in a timely fashion the deal may very well go awry. Easy2bid's foreign staff of key account managers can catch these problems before they occur, thus preventing that orders are canceled. The most common problems are language problems, no matter if communication takes place via mail or via direct contact. Because of this many small and medium sized enterprises have difficulties communicating with foreign customers. In these cases foreign key account managers can be of assistance. So far, Easy2Bid has been very successful in performing these services and they secured many orders for their customers. This kind of wholeheartedly customer service has earned Easy2Bid much appreciation from customers. After all, securing orders for customers is their ultimate goal too.
Foreign key account management requires a long term effort, and will not provide an immediate economic outcome. Off course, such a high level of customers’ service is costly. But, the reason why foreign key account management is so important is that it provides service to the customers. And, the customers are the most important resource of any company, the foundation and the lifeblood. If you provide a high level of service, you will get the customers trust and support , which will allow you to hold on to your customers, as well getting new customers, allowing you to make a lot of money. This is the heart of customer service.
About
Easy2Bid is the leading European Buyer service community, dedicated to helping European buyers find suppliers of high standard and quality and thereby ensuring our buyers’ cost-efficient solutions.
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