The customer is always right! 3 + 1 cases that happened to us and how we handled them

ottobre 19, 2021

We have been taught that the customer is always right! In this article I have collected 3 + 1 cases of customers who are particularly difficult to manage. If many of us believe that our B2C colleagues are faring much worse, remember that even in B2B we are dealing with people. For this reason, here we have collected how we managed some of these cases to protect ourselves both commercially, but also from unnecessary stress peaks.

We recently happened to follow really complex and enormously difficult projects for important clients and to our amazement many of them were really uncooperative. We decided to tell you about our experience and how we managed the situation because it seems interesting to give you our point of view.

The customer who does not want to send technical information

The case of the customer who does not want to send technical information has happened to us more than once, lately on very complex pieces with drawings to be converted from inches. We discovered, only during our in-depth technical analysis, for the creation of the phase drawings, that the customer had all the information necessary to shorten the engineering time. Clearly, if you do not know the customer, it is very difficult to protect yourself from a situation of this type. As a degree of difficulty in handling this situation, I would definitely make it fall into the simple ones. In fact, it was enough a meeting in which we had the opportunity to externalize this discomfort to prevent it from recurring in future projects already under construction.

The customer requiring for a payment for scrapped pieces

Honestly, I hope this case never happens to you. As you well know, the saying who breaks pay also applies in the mechanical sector, but we have one more chance: to fix the pieces. The pieces arrive and are discarded by the customer, from whom we ask for explanations. In response, we receive a credit note with the problem they identified. So we begin to recover the pieces, communicate the timing and follow the whole procedure. The pieces are ready, we send the requested documentation, the customer no longer responds. So we decide not to send the pieces and wait. From time to time we receive a payment reminder, without ever giving us an answer to what we have sent. Unfortunately, besides being a blind tunnel, I think it is also the worst way to work.

The customer looking to go directly to the subcontractor we found to manage his project

Another very frequent case study, of simple resolution, but which generates a lot of unuseful work. In the middle of last year we start a very interesting and at the same time really complex project on a technical level. A customer looking for a supply chain that can guarantee extreme tolerances in turning at a good price. We start the project and during the technical study with the subcontractor we realize that his technology and knowledge are not enough. So, having identified the problem, we turn to four other subcontractors, only one agrees to try to analyze the project. We communicate this to the customer who after a few rounds of e-mail asks us to have direct contact with this new supplier to amortize production costs and manage the chain independently. Obviously, at this point we abandon the project and leave the client free to continue in his research.

The customer who paws to lower prices at all costs

This case too is certainly very frequent, unpleasant, but easily manageable. Also in this case, an automotive project, with a price target set by the main customer which then affects the rest of the chain. Understandably, the car manufacturer's first supplier will tend to want to dictate the price by being the only one who knows precisely how much it must cost. We make an offer based on the drawings and annual quantities indicated to us. The price is too high. We try to lower where possible, but it is still too high. We arrive at an agreed price, we go to pre-series, obviously the cycle is not perfect we must add and modify some phases even under the advice of the client. The price varies and is no longer good. The purchasing department begins to threaten and paw. The situation, believe me, is not the best. Nonetheless, it is necessary to manage by calming tempers and arriving at a win-win solution for both parties. The foreign sales department simply asks the customer for greater collaboration on the technical readiness in order to optimize and consequently lower prices. Fortunately, we approved the process today and are testing an even cheaper one.

With this short article we wanted to share with you some of our most significant dispute management experiences. Certainly, collaboration should be the basis of the customer-supplier business relationship. However, this is not always the case, in fact it often happens that the supplier is kept in note only when he is late with the delivery and maybe it is not even his fault, but of the whole chain in trouble. Fortunately, we have with most of the business partners a beautiful relationship of synergy and mutual help that allows all teams to work with peace of mind and quite high profits.

The customer is always right! 3 + 1 cases that happened to us and how we handled them

The customer who does not want to send technical information

The customer requiring for a payment for scrapped pieces

The customer looking to go directly to the subcontractor we found to manage his project

The customer who paws to lower prices at all costs

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