Show you really care about your customers across the world…you do care, don’t you?
Most traditional advice for companies which are looking to start exporting or for businesses already exporting to grow their business globally talks about market sizes, GDP, selecting the right distributors etc.
That is all fantastic stuff, but rarely, if ever, have I seen anybody mention one factor which I have seen making huge a difference in the fortune of businesses, big or small, which want to grow overseas: Providing great customer service.
Whether you are exporting directly or through intermediaries, such as agents or distributors, if they feel that you and your business really, genuinely, cares about them and their business with you then you have vastly improved your chances of export success.
To provide that excellent export customer service there has to buy-in and commitment to export across your whole business and your subcontractors. Your legal and technical people have to be committed to get those specifications right, and on time, for the customs people in the customer’s country, your production manager and the despatch manager at your designated forwarding company have to understand the overseas customer’s supply chain to ensure that the orders arrive in time for the customer’s Christmas rush and the finance people have to understand the invoicing requirements in different countries.
In very few cases this is not even remotely approaching rocket science. But often because no one has explained to people who may have been used to working with UK businesses only why these issues are important, then you can’t really expect to expect them understand them, just like that.
Internal communication is often ignored by many businesses that are beginning to export ‘later in life’. So therefore if many staff may feel that export is bit of interference to their UK business and if that shows in your customer service towards you export customers, your export business will suffer.
Running internal workshops, telling export success stories when excellent customer service pays off, introducing internal colleagues to overseas customers when they visit you and saying ‘thank you’ work wonders.