Some Points That Customers Care About but You Might Overlook

01

When giving lectures to colleagues in the company, I always mention a concept: factories belong to the secondary industry—they are industrial manufacturing. International trade, whether it’s the trade of factories or trading companies, falls under the tertiary industry—services!

So, when we engage in international trade, besides the straightforward transaction of paying money and delivering goods, we should also provide services because we are part of the tertiary industry.

In conversations with many clients, it’s inevitable to discuss a topic: what makes our company different from other suppliers? Clients often say, “You are very professional, and your service is excellent. Although you are a trading company, I still want to entrust you with other products and replace those factories!”

Therefore, as the title suggests, besides goods, what else do clients want? What are the things clients have always desired but we have overlooked?

02

Once, a client told us that Chinese companies are increasingly focusing on quality. As long as the products are produced at scale in China, the quality is generally reliable; most factories are similar. However, they often overlook a very important issue: packaging!

The client showed me photos of pallets they previously imported from China—haphazardly stacked, crooked, some pallets already falling apart. In contrast, pallets from Europe and Japan are clean, tidy, and well-organized. After several shipments, there was no deformation or shifting.

I understood what the client meant: they wanted to see if we are on par with others. I explained that the main reasons for these issues are twofold: manual stretch wrapping is hard to tighten properly; manual packing with loose straps. We have stretch wrapping machines and packing machines that can ensure these problems won’t occur like they do with some Chinese manufacturers. Of course, reaching the same level as Japan and Europe might be challenging because our processes are not yet as refined, but we are working on it.

Packaging, as part of the product, including surface treatment, cleanliness, whether the pallet is sturdy and secure, directly affects product quality and the costs during transportation and use.

This applies to chemical products, machinery, and similarly, wooden crates—whether they are sturdy, reinforced, protected against collisions, contact, scratches—must be given attention.

03

Some factories also place materials or certificates in chemical products—acceptable. But some even include inspection reports, which clients are unaware of. During use, workers might directly feed these materials into production, causing these paper documents to enter the client’s production line…

Many clients have told me that their workers are unwilling to use products from certain suppliers or brands…

Documents and operational procedures are also highly valued by clients, but many companies pay little attention to them.

It’s no longer just one client telling me: “Their products are good, and their sales team is professional, but their operations are terrible—they always have issues. We really don’t want to cooperate with them.” We are forced to change suppliers because of operational problems. If it’s just inconvenience, the boss might not mind changing, but if losses occur, the reasons are immediately clear.

Change!

For example, documents always have errors, bills of lading are delayed; routine operations that are normal elsewhere become problematic here.

Another example: letter of credit. After signing the contract, to ensure “absolute safety,” they demand unnecessary amendments—changing expiry locations to domestic, removing clauses like “clean on board,” or “non-conforming points, non-payment clauses”…

Amending a letter of credit isn’t like amending a contract. It’s a document you create, and any changes must go through the bank and incur fees. Such troublesome behavior for clients is tolerable once or twice, but if it becomes habitual, it will eventually lead to disaster.

04

Communication efficiency is also a form of service. I’ve mentioned this repeatedly. Why, even after directly reaching the end customer, do they still find an intermediary to contact us? It’s simple: they trust this intermediary, and it’s their native language. They’ve established a fixed communication pattern that’s highly efficient—just have the intermediary push us.

According to the intermediary, they provide service and efficiency in exchange for commissions.

Honestly, many communication barriers are self-created. Not knowing one’s limits causes hesitation in decision-making—fear of this, fear of that; thinking their own time is abundant and cheap, and assuming clients’ time is not valuable. In reality, clients are racing against time. If you can’t keep up, you’ll be eliminated.

Clients often ask, “If there’s a problem with your goods, how will you handle it?”

My colleagues misunderstood and thought they should explain our quality management system. They started explaining, but the client interrupted: “I just want to know, what if my goods are defective? I don’t care about anything else. That’s your internal management issue.”

I said that before any batch leaves the factory, we conduct sampling inspections. Defective products are absolutely not shipped out. If, hypothetically, defective products do slip through, we can return or replace them—no problem—and this can be included in the contract.

The client responded, “Good, OK.”

Therefore, after-sales service is one of the key services clients want. We need to establish a practical and trustworthy after-sales guarantee system to eliminate clients’ worries.

05

Clients also want convenience. For example, if the client is a trading company, they hope to have our agency authorization letter—not necessarily exclusive agency.

They might want us to issue a letter of credit for monthly shipments in batches, with us settling payments in parts.

They hope that when time is tight, they can operate with “ship without documents” to avoid port fees.

They may want to sign quarterly or even annual contracts, with prices fixed unless there’s a significant fluctuation.

When reporting to the boss or intermediaries reporting to end clients, they expect the documentation to be complete and prepared by us.

Generally, clients don’t pay for these value-added services. But if other conditions are nearly identical, offering some value-added services will definitely be appreciated. Once they get used to this level of service, they might not want to switch because few can serve them as well as we do.

Imagine: clients don’t need to tell you they want a letter of credit, but you already know they require it to be settled by letter of credit in their country. Meanwhile, competitors are still discussing pre-TT, advance payments, etc…

Imagine: when a Korean client requests a letter of credit, you immediately know they want a fake forward, while others are still doubting the reliability of fake forward letters of credit…

Imagine: without being told, you can prepare all the documents, while competitors are making excuses, saying they can’t do it, or asking for extra fees…

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