Pelican Parts Forums - How to deal with irrational customers?

Quote:

Originally Posted by stomachmonkey (Post 5756028)

Don't get me wrong. I have this discussion with my CEO and Chairman all the time. They have this bad habit of shopping everything around. Translation, our vendors don't feel they have our business regardless of how well they perform and it is reflected in price and more importantly in service, they are not willing to do anything extra, special, go the extra mile when we need their help to get us out of a jam.

I'm of the opinion that you identify 2-3 primary vendors for a particular service. Make it clear to them that we consider them a partner. That doing their part to help our business is good for their business.

In all honesty the problem here is the amount of the discount. It's so far out of line with what he is accustomed to paying that it's really difficult if not impossible for him to rationalize.

If I were your client about the only thing that I could swallow is set up charges. Every job requires some amount of work before the real work can begin. Printing is a prime example. It costs X $'s to set up a printing press. Does not matter if you are printing 100 sheets or 100,000. It's a fixed cost which is spread out across the quantity so your price per unit drops drastically in some cases.

This is my goal when I work with my customers. Some of them are open to this and some of them are not. Some are much more interested in cutting costs to the bone and will simply take the 'best deal' over the 'best relationship'. In some places, that is certainly appropriate but usually at the level my customers are at - it isn't. They don't always see if that way and things can become very hostile from them very quickly. One experience I have is with a customer that simply would not take any responsibility for the implementation of our product in their environment. Sure; we make it, sell it and support it - all that is true - but if you install it wrong and it doesn't work as you expected it to and you don't put forth the proper amount of effort to support yourself - why are we responsible for that?

It can get pretty ridiculous really quickly. I wonder why my upper management doesn't just walk away or allow them to diminish. Customers like this aren't typically very profitable but I suppose there is always that hope of turning it around. That is what I work toward - the long term goals over the short in those situations.