The Time to Act is... Now
One of my clients is experiencing a degree of frustration with a buyer. Essentially, the problem is that they send out an invoice, only to be told on chasing the invoice a month later, that the buyer now has to set them up in their “vendor system”, thereby delaying payment. This obviously impacts my client’s cashflow, as well as affecting relations with the buyer.
It reminds me that “Customer Experience” continues to be key. My client’s payments are delayed due to bureaucratic excuses, whilst the buyer’s systems and processes appear unfit for managing its suppliers. I can understand the buyer not wanting to go through the process of setting up a supplier in a system if that supplier never supplies anything (that would be a waste of time), but equally, once the supplier does supply goods or services, the set-up should happen immediately upon receipt of the invoice, not when the supplier chases them.
Customer Experience is a two-way street in this instance. If my client has fulfilled the needs of their buyer as agreed with the buyer, they have the right to be paid promptly. Further bureaucratic delays are not part of this deal and are the buyer’s responsibility.
In reality, some buyers know that they hold the “upper hand” and can treat suppliers more or less as they wish. The only problem is that this can work against them in the end (in terms of reputation at the very least).
Our duty to our suppliers is as strong as our duty to our buyers and customers if we want to maintain a strong reputation as professional organisations. Bureaucracy is an internal issue; customer satisfaction is external and along with it goes reputation. If that goes, so does our business.
We all owe it to our suppliers to manage them as professionally as we can.
I have spent more than half my life delivering change in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in international financial services around the world running different operations and lending businesses, I started my own Consultancy to provide solutions for improving performance, productivity and risk management. I work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email. My websiteprovides a full picture of my portfolio of services. For strategic questions that you should be asking yourself, follow me at @wkm610.
posted by William Martin @ 09:46
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