Eileen Bentley, Senior Manager Capability Development, Bord Bia - The Irish Food Board
Before thinking about what you want to say to your customers, you need to understand them. Customer understanding can be overlooked by even the largest suppliers as they default to a communication update or pitch that is all about them, who they are and what they do. However, by stepping back and starting from a position of understanding and insight, that same supplier can present their business more powerfully as a solution to the customer’s pain points. In the current Covid-19 crisis and ongoing as we emerge from it in the months ahead, understanding your customer’s pain points is going to be crucial to starting meaningful customer conversations, whether those are virtual or face to face conversations.
The key areas you need to understand about your customer are the:
- Corporate Strategy
- Category Strategy
- Buyer KPI’s
- Operations
- Key Buying Processes
- And in the current crisis, the Covid-19 business impact
There are a variety of rich information sources for this content such as the customer’s annual report, their website or related articles and features in the media, your buyer or customer contact, store visits (or online store visits), conversations with other colleagues in your business and non-competing suppliers. For Covid-19 specific customer understanding, several online sources are sharing daily or weekly customer bulletins e.g. IGD, Kantar, and MCA HIM.
On Thursday 9th April at 11am, Bord Bia’s Covid-19 webinar series will focus on Buyer Engagement, including the importance of customer understanding. It will also cover Customer Communication in a Crisis, how to deliver Compelling Customer Updates and top tips for Virtual Pitches. Registration details can be found on Bord Bia’s Covid-19 hub