“Customer is King… Customer is always right… Take good care of your customers, etc.” These are what we learn in managing customer relationship for long-term business survival. Too much emphasis has been placed on the ‘customer’ side, tilting the scale of balance in this mutually dependent business relationship. What about the reverse? Has anyone given thought to the way we should treat our suppliers of goods and services? How should we treat our suppliers of goods or service providers in order to create a mutually beneficial relationship in business?
A recent spate of events had sparked off my thought on this subject. It was a pleasant surprise for me to receive a thank you note from a foreign client, whom I serviced virtually in collaboration with a foreign associate. Both are located in different states in the United States of America. I also had the opportunity to service another foreign client who recently relocated to Singapore and was moved by her appreciative manner.
Both clients wrote to me to inform me of the outcomes of their workshop and presentation. They were pleased with the support that I had provided. I felt truly appreciated and was pleased to know that my efforts had in part contributed to their successful outcomes. I am motivated to provide even better service in future. They are models for us to learn how to appreciate good services received.
It is a rare instance for any clients to treat their suppliers equally good as their customers. Conversely, they would expect to be at the receiving end of appreciation from their suppliers for the business given. This is a one-way traffic. A deep-rooted mindset needs to be changed for the better. Imagine the quantum leap in the quality of service that you could provide to your customers from an improved supply chain that adds value to your services.
In a recent article by David Hope-Ross of the Gartner Group, entitled "SRM is the Recipe for Doing More with Less", he advocates that a holistic approach is needed to maximize the suppliers’ value to the enterprise. What is SRM? In this article, the author defined Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) as the practice of establishing the business rules and understanding needed for interacting with suppliers of products and services of varied criticality to the profitability of the enterprise. Supplier relationships that are properly managed can contribute to enterprise innovation and growth. At the same time, a poorly managed supply base will drive up costs and slow new-product initiatives to a crawl.
So, change for the better now. Treat your suppliers the way you would treat your customers and be pleasantly surprised.
