Excellence in Managing Worldwide Customer Relationships

Thomas A. Cook

• Publisher: CRC Press
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781482226195
• eBook ISBN: 9781315356099
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

Every company is recognizing the critical importance of protecting its customer base by raising the bar of its customer service prowess. Excellence in Managing Worldwide Customer Relationships identifies the risks companies face when expanding their business model in both domestic and overseas markets and offers solutions, strategies, and a structure to minimize obstacles when selling to domestic and foreign markets while satisfying customers and developing new business.

This fifth book in the Global Warrior Series looks at the obstacles in customer service management and provides a 10-step process for developing a best-practices approach that offers the best opportunity for excellence, world class initiatives, and high client satisfaction and retention levels. It focuses on technology, along with other measures and how it can be utilized in customer service relationships that will enhance the customers' loyalty. As companies grow within their North American markets and internationally, the book will also look at customer service in home markets, as well as in global operations, cultural issues, and expanding into world markets.

1

The Challenges of Business Development in International Business

We cannot emphasize sufficiently the case that going international creates risk. The challenges are enormous and sometimes overwhelming.

This chapter outlines these issues and their relevance. The balance of this book outlines the strategies and solutions in each following chapter on how to make these issues disappear or at least be minimized to controllable levels.

THE CASE TO GO GLOBAL

Companies need to expand into international markets for a number of reasons:

Market expansion. For North American companies there are potential limits to growth in their domestic markets. Mature Western markets and new and developing countries all present a huge potential in almost an unlimited market penetration and growth opportunity.

U.S.- and Canadian based products are in high demand in most places worldwide. While we are mostly big importers, there is a major demand for most of the products we grow, raise, farm, mine, and manufacture in the North American arena.

It is a misnomer that we are not competitive in global markets. Just the opposite; our products and services are in huge demand.

Selling globally for most companies is or can become a huge part of their overall sales strategy and even grow to become the most profitable area for margin and long-term opportunity.

Additionally, U.S.-based customer service is second to none. We are leaders in robust customer service deliverables and continually demonstrate to the world that we back our products and services with a team of operational staff that performs consistently, reliably, and cost effectively.

It is also a misnomer that we are not adaptable to other foreign cultures. While I would agree that we can do a better job at language and tolerance in the foreign domain, most of our personnel are very flexible when dealing and managing with foreign sales and customer service matters.

At the end of the day, business development on foreign shores potentially becomes an integral part of any business’s growth and expansion strategies.

Enhanced profit margins. I have had it argued both ways—exports reduce margin depth and also enhance it. But my experience in exports in over 60 countries in more than a dozen verticals has demonstrated that there is a definite opportunity for margin expansion on foreign shores, particularly in emerging and developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and within all of Latin America.

It typically makes the case for creative and intelligent approaches to sales, marketing, and in customer service for those foreign markets, which also includes intense levels of flexibility, tolerance, and patience customized to the nuances of each country and culture around the globe. This will be discussed in detail in Chapters 2 and 3.

Keep in mind that North America and particularly the United States produce an enormous volume of products from natural sources that are in huge demand along with a host of high-tech, pharma, defense, aerospace, and medical equipment, to name a few industrial areas that are favored by many countries and consumers around the world.

Meeting competitive pressures. Every industry vertical and every company within that vertical is always under significant pressure to:

Some companies must expand globally to keep pace with their competition so they protect their client base and market share.

An example of this would be a smaller industrial products company that is successful in their domestic sales but is now is faced with the threat of competitors who can service the international needs of their existing domestic clients.

As their clients grow their businesses overseas they have supply needs to these foreign locations. There is now an expectation that you can service these foreign locations just as you do for all their domestic facilities.

Your competitors that currently have that global reach are talking to your clients. This forces you into the global arena just to maintain and develop with your clients’ needs.

This is a “reactive” reasoning process, which is not as productive as a process that preempts and anticipates clients’ needs, but it does often work to keep clients happy.

Business development risk management. Risk management is a growing and integral management task in any business model.

The risk associated with sales, business development, and customer service is that if we only are in our domestic market, what happens when the economy in that market goes south? What happens if one competitor buys up another competitor and creates certain leverages? What happens if we lose market share? How do we combat these potential risks?

One option is to provide a “balanced approach” and have a certain percentage of sales outside of our domestic market. This provides a “risk management” approach as we are “spreading out” potential areas of concern and exposure to a greater demographic.

It both reduces risk and creates opportunity at the same time!

Risk management is a healthy part of any sales, business development, or customer service program.

The author contends that as we approach 2018, risk management will become an integral part of every aspect of how a company does business, including customer service and more particularly the supply chain in the international arena.

CHALLENGES OF GOING GLOBAL

Where there is opportunity in foreign sales there is also risk. The key is to identify the risks, mitigate them, and increase the odds for success.

We need to understand the generic risks, which are outlined below:

Ocean shipping is fraught with risk and exposure. Understanding and mitigating risk should be a central focus for all foreign initiatives.

Twenty-One Challenges of Going Global:

1. Physical issues

2. Geographic constraints

3. Economic conditions

4. Political risks

5. Cultural issues

6. Legal differences

7. Establishing a foundation

8. Time differences

9. Performance standards

10. Language differences

11. Payment terms

12. Intellectual property rights (IPR)

13. Transportation and logistics

14. Customs entry

15. Trade compliance

16. Last mile delivery

17. Terrorism and security

18. Regulatory

19. INCOTerms

20. Across-the-globe training

21. Risk management

The challenges of global trade are expansive, as is our physical planet, but manageable through best practices.

Physical Issues

When goods move internationally they can travel over 15,000 miles, in all sorts of weather conditions, modes of transit, and geographic challenges.

Steps must be taken to properly mark, label, and package the shipments for the intended journey. Contemplation must be made as to what risks will be faced when determining all the available packing and marking options.

Many insurance companies and underwriting agencies report that on average anywhere from 1% to as high as 5% of freight transiting internationally can be lost or damaged.

Rough handling, improper packing, water damage, and poor c...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Chapter 1 The Challenges of Business Development in International Business
• Chapter 2 Establishing a Robust and Aggressive Export Sales Strategy
• Chapter 3 E-Commerce
• Chapter 4 Cargo Loss Control
• Chapter 5 Regulatory and Trade Compliance Concerns in International Trade
• Chapter 6 Utilizing Service Providers and Other Useful Third Parties to Enhance Your Customer Service Capabilities
• Chapter 7 Negotiating Skill Sets in Global Trade
• Chapter 8 Best Practices in Sales, Business Development, and Customer Service
• Glossary
• Appendix
• Index
• Author