Meridian: Resonating with Customers

Xi'an Meridian Home Crafts Design & Manufacture Co., Ltd. (Meridian), where Wei Li is the general manager, is located in western China. However, he has done business overseas and is very good at cooperating with overseas of buyers "resonate". Not long ago, he and the president of the German company Markant "resonated" again.

It was November 2005. Li Wei attended a buyer meeting held by Global Sources in Shenzhen and had an interview with Markant, a German service chain. The company provides centralized procurement services for more than 400 large corporate members. They briefed each other on their respective situations for more than an hour.

Li Wei said that Meridian's philosophy is to be customer-centric, and he gave some examples of how he did it. The other party expressed resonance and said: Many suppliers we have contacted still do not pay enough attention to customer needs, and it is very good that you are so deeply aware of this.

Li Wei also discovered one of the foundations of "resonance": Markant's president often gives lectures on the "Export Marketing Management Course" jointly organized by Global Sources and China Europe International Business School, and Li Wei happens to have attended this training.

The glassware industry that Meridian Company is engaged in is an industry with foreign trade advantages in Xi'an, and dozens of companies, large and small, compete very fiercely. Meridian began to cooperate with Global Sources in 2002, and now its turnover has doubled compared to that time.

Li Wei said, since the cooperation with Global Sources, the biggest gain of the company is to learn how to deal with customers. Global Sources allows us to know more about what customers are thinking and what their needs are. Now, the customer-centric philosophy is deeply rooted in the company, which is the key to Meridian's ability to win the competition.

Promotion is not just as simple as advertising

In fact, Meridian first dealt with Global Sources in 1999, but only signed a contract for half a year, and then stopped.

Li Wei said that there were two main reasons for the lack of cooperation at that time: First, the e-commerce environment was not very mature at that time, there were still relatively few merchants contacting business by e-mail, and the Internet transmission speed was also very slow. It sometimes takes more than half an hour for pictures to go online; but a more important reason is that the company itself is not ready for e-commerce, and has no experience in how to use the Internet to develop business.

But through this tentative partnership, he feels that there is still value in working with Global Sources. For the first time, Meridian has contacted two international buyers, including the well-known SIMEX, via the Internet.

In 2002, with the popularity of the Internet and e-commerce, Li Wei made up his mind to cooperate with Global Sources again. This time he felt that the road was getting wider and wider.

He said that cooperating with Global Sources is more than just publishing advertisements. It is necessary to learn to make full use of the services provided by Global Sources and improve the level of export management.

Li Wei once joked with Frank Chai, the head of the Xi'an office of Global Sources: "You don't come empty-handed every time!" Because Chai Jigui brings some information every time. For example, analyze the status of advertising in this industry, or what products in the industry are more inquiries, and so on. When Meridian was going to exhibit in a foreign country, Chai Jigui brought some information on how to set up an exhibition abroad, including what issues should be paid attention to, how to highlight the company's image, etc. Li Wei found it very helpful.

Under the recommendation of Chai Jigui, Isabelle Wong, the sales manager of Meridian Line, participated in the three-day training of "Export Marketing Management Course" for the first time, and was deeply impressed after returning.

She said that she has been doing foreign trade for many years, and there are indeed some doubts in her mind that have not been answered. The teachers who came to lectures have many years of foreign trade practice, and at the same time have a high theoretical level, and some are even international buyers. , After a little bit of fiddling with them, it seemed that the thin layer of window paper in his mind was pierced at once, and there was a sense of sudden opening. She told Li Wei that you must go and listen next year.

The next year, Li Wei also went to listen to it, and many of the content in the class really touched him deeply. For example, how to get to know the customer after receiving the inquiry from the customer, Li Wei said that he did not have much experience in this area at that time. The teacher told him many methods, such as checking the customer's information on the Internet, or asking the customer to provide some background information. More importantly, after analyzing the customer, it is necessary to classify and register the customer: is this an important customer? Or a potentially important client? Or a general customer? After classification, different methods are used to manage them, and they are more efficient and targeted.

This is what Meridian does now: every day they receive a lot of inquiries from buyers, and the sales manager will read the emails first, then sort them and distribute them to the salespeople below. The sales manager will supervise the salesman's process.

For better management, Meridian has also purchased a set of very advanced software. Through inquiries, the sales manager can see whether the salesman has responded to customer inquiries on schedule and what the content of the reply is on the computer; and if the salesman does not reply, the inquiry will stay in that place to remind him to reply.

Marketing is not just about products

Li Wei said that before the cooperation with Global Sources, Meridian's working method still gave people the feeling of an old one: communication with customers is relatively simple, and it is customers who come to ask questions Whether this product is available, and if so, quote it; there are fewer channels to contact customers, and basically there is no concept of following customers and being customer-centric.

Through the contact with Global Sources, the biggest gain is to learn to deal with customers in modern ways and advanced concepts, which makes the whole company take a big step forward in the way of business.

In 2003, in order to better communicate with customers, Li Wei set up a design department with a vision, which is still rare in the industry. Because after the cooperation with Global Sources, there are more and more online inquiries, and some customers often put forward their own requirements, hoping that Li Wei can provide samples instead of simply providing their existing products. With more customers in contact, Li Wei felt that the design must keep up.

The newly established design department really played a big role in winning a customer, Li Wei said, not only the design department, but also the entire Meridian company in the difficult process of winning this customer. Withstood a "how to deal with customers" test.

One day, Meridian received an inquiry: A well-known gift company in the United States said they needed matching supplies for "SKYY". Li Wei checked the Internet to know that "SKYY" is a brand of vodka, which has a long history.

Foreigners are more particular about drinking. Different wines should be drunk in different cups. They go to check what kind of cups should be used to drink vodka. After they showed the first sample to the customer, the other party expressed interest, and also provided their product at hand, and the two sides discussed together. The main requirement of customers is novelty.

The designers of Meridian have designed a variety of schemes, and put a lot of effort into quantity matching and color transformation. I sent pictures back and forth to the client seven or eight times, and finally the client seemed to think it was okay, so he went to report to his client. But the information returned made Li Wei's heart sink: the final customer felt dissatisfied, and the reason was not novel enough.

Li Wei asked designers to find inspiration and go to bars, high-end shopping malls, and hotels to see all kinds of drinking utensils. Two or three weeks later, the designers came up with a plan, this time it was completely different from the original idea: first, a tray was added, which was wrapped in white leather, which looked very noble, and the leather was branded with a concave brand. : "SKYY90", the wine glass on the tray is accompanied by an ice bucket - because I know that vodka is sometimes drunk coldly, the wine glass can be cooled for a long time on the ice bucket, and there is a large beside the wine glass. A wooden bucket that can hold ice cubes. After the sample was printed, Li Wei passed the picture to the customer, and the other party liked it very much.

But there is one more process before the product is delivered to the customer: Ask people from other departments to provide feedback. Li Wei said that if the fault of the product was not found at that time, the customer would be very passive only to find the problem after buying it back, so Li Wei asked the person who provided the opinion to be "picky" - only bad words, not good words.

After everyone found faults, it was found that there were some problems with the inner structure of the large wooden barrel holding the ice cubes and the support of the wooden pallet. The designers have made several modifications to make the product more practical and safe. The customer was very satisfied with the product, not only gave them the order, but also did business with them many times since.

Trust is not as simple as certification

Over the past few years in cooperation with Global Sources, Li Wei has summed up some principles that resonate with customers, the most important of which is to build mutual trust between the two parties. However, building trust is not as simple as passing some certification. Of course, these certifications are required.

Many customers first learned about suppliers through Global Sources' websites and magazines. Although Global Sources strictly scrutinizes the qualifications of buyers and suppliers, psychologically speaking, the two parties have never met before. When it comes to face-to-face, after all, the sense of trust is less. In order to give customers a sense of trust and improve the internal management of the company, Meridian has obtained ISO9001:2000 certification. Meridian is done by SGS, an internationally renowned certification agency. The requirements are very strict. After passing the certification, it will send people to review it regularly. Once it finds that the other party does not meet the requirements, it will immediately rectify within a period of time. If it fails to pass the inspection, the qualification will be revoked.

In addition to being certified by this company, Meridian is also certified by UKAS, the founder of the ISO9000 standard. When customers see that Meridian has passed these certifications, and these certifications can be found online, their trust in the company increases.

For export, it also involves the issue of advance payment after reaching a business intention with customers. Meridian generally requires customers to pay in advance before mass production, so it is very important to give customers a sense of trust.

Li Wei said that building trust also lies in having candid communication with customers. Even if you encounter some difficulties, you must tell customers the actual situation. Generally, customers can understand. Never lie. Many products made by Meridian are given as gifts by customers. Many customers are not professional buyers of glass and do not know much about the glass industry. In this case, Li Wei adheres to a principle: tell the truth.

He will tell the customer where the product's strengths lie, and he will also inform the customer about the product's flaws, and how they can be avoided. Li Wei said that this information must be told to customers, if not, it is also a risk to the company's future. Meridian will also tell customers what standards the product meets - European standards, US FDA, California 65, German LFGB, these standards are all different.

Through dealing with clients over the past few years, Li Wei has become more and more motivated to "study". There is a row of cabinets in his office, and books about wine alone take up a full cabinet. Li Wei said that he now knows a lot more about wine than before, because different wines use different drinking utensils and represent different cultures. The same wine is drunk differently in different countries and regions and on different occasions. After understanding, we can deeply understand what kind of products customers need, and finally make them satisfied.

Mentioning about these cabinets, an interesting detail is: Before working with Global Sources, these cabinets were used to hold faxes sent by customers. In the past, the communication between Meridian and customers was by fax. The faxes sent by each customer were collected with a separate clip. Some customers sent faxes in a year with four or five clips. A foot thick. Now, these cabinets have a new purpose.