Customer Service and the Small Supplier

I was sitting at my desk the other day when the phone rang. (It was one of those times when everyone looked to see if I am there and going to answer the phone. The open work environment takes away from productivity. Just my opinion.)

Anyways, the call was from one of our suppliers, a small business that appreciates doing business with our company. The supplier said, “I usually get an order from you once a month and we did not receive one in January. Is there something we need to do?  Do you have a problem with the product? I just wanted to check to see that everything was alright.” 

How many times do you hear that these days? With companies buying companies, corporate mergers, small businesses shutting down, it is rare to have a supplier call you to see if everything is okay.

In the days of yesteryear, of course, suppliers came by in person, took the buyer to lunch and the rep promoted his product. With the large companies of today, you usually have a headquarters where the suppliers go. Buyers can be spread anywhere in the country. Many of them work at home.

Sometimes when I call a supplier with a problem, the customer service rep tells me I need to talk to a factory representative. When I answer, “Well I would if I knew who it was?”

That brings out a little giggle.

With the technology of today, placing orders through the Internet, using EDI, or even FAX, we do not make contact with people like we used to. We talk to people when there is a problem, after listening to 10 steps on the automated call system. It is really nice to call a company and you actually get a person on the other end of the line.

In the opinion of this buyer, customer service is the name of the game. Customers can most likely buy products from a number of businesses; but a supplier must offer the best to the customer to maintain that business. Often that customer service level is monitored by the supplier’s phone calls. I call many companies where the calls are monitored to rate your satisfaction with the call. It is usually the customer service people that get monitored.

It makes me think. I can’t remember calling another buyer where a message came on that stated this call is being monitored for a customer satisfaction rating. How would we as buyers respond if we knew we were being monitored?