Businessmen engaged in cross-border e-commerce know that if overseas customers are willing to visit in person, the probability of success will increase a lot. When receiving overseas customers, you must respect them everywhere. The common details to pay attention to in business reception are as follows.
1. Itinerary
The itinerary of the visit reception is intended to give overseas customers a certain understanding of the itinerary. There may be minor adjustments in the actual visit reception, but this itinerary is an important basis, which can win the recognition and trust of overseas customers to a certain extent (see Table 5-5).
2. First meeting
Generally speaking, airport pick-up is the first meeting between the two parties. After successfully receiving the overseas customers at the airport and getting on the car, pay attention to observe the state of the overseas customers to see if they are tired, and then decide whether to chat about the local food, beautiful scenery, culture, climate, etc. After checking into the hotel, give the guests time and space to rest and adjust. If time permits, arrange a welcome dinner. The restaurant environment should be good and clean. Due to physical allergies or differences in religion and eating habits, be sure to ask overseas customers if they have any taboos. It is best to provide knives and forks for tableware. Overseas customers may not use chopsticks. Use public chopsticks to pick up dishes. It is best to respect the preferences of overseas customers for drinks.
3. Flowers for the welcome ceremony
When overseas customers visit, the reception staff can order a bouquet. The flower delivery can be arranged when picking up at the airport, when overseas customers arrive at the company, or when overseas customers visit the factory. Beautiful bouquets, sincere smiles and warm words “Welcome to xxx” (Welcome to xxx) make overseas customers feel valued and welcomed, so that they are in a good mood. Don’t forget to take a photo to record this beautiful moment.
4. Refreshments in the meeting room
When overseas customers sit down in the meeting room, you may ask first, “Can I bring you something to drink? Coffee or tea?” Generally speaking, overseas customers have a tight schedule in China. Due to the time difference, they may not have a good breakfast. A cup of freshly brewed hot coffee can warm their hearts and stomachs, and can also refresh them. Prepare small candies, small-packaged chocolates or more delicate small desserts, which can not only eliminate hunger, but also satisfy their preference for sweets.
5. Deep impression of visiting the factory or sample room
When overseas customers visit the factory or sample room, under the premise of ensuring safety, let the customers experience the operation links and do it themselves, or when the customers are studying the samples carefully, take a video for them, record the process of the customer’s visit, and send the video to the customer. Remember to reflect the logo of your company or product in the video, so that even if the overseas customers visit multiple factories or sample rooms of multiple companies during this trip, they can still easily remember our reception. This can effectively improve the reception effect and leave a deep impression in the minds of overseas customers.
6. Minutes of the meeting
The minutes of the meeting should reflect the entire process of the meeting and the content should be as detailed as possible. Including: issues communicated in the meeting, questions raised by overseas customers, solutions, etc.; all needs and interests mentioned by customers; orders confirmed by customers on the spot, or some things confirmed on the spot, as well as some important contents of the visit, etc. After the meeting, be sure to carefully and promptly review the entire meeting process. Here, you can use the recording of the venue to supplement and improve the meeting record. Please ask the overseas customer and our salesperson to review and confirm, and both parties sign and keep an original copy. These materials can be used to update customer briefings or customer information sheets, which are convenient for follow-up later and conducive to generating thinking and new insights. Common minutes of meetings are shown in Table 5-6. 7. Customer briefings or customer information collection sheets
In cross-border e-commerce business, based on in-depth understanding of overseas customer information, product information, and market information, continuous standardization and optimization of work processes will improve work efficiency and effectiveness. It can be said that although customer briefings or customer information collection sheets may seem insignificant, their value cannot be ignored. For example, some new customers have not yet placed orders, and the impression is often not deep enough. Even for old customers, some information and impressions will become vague over time. Establish customer briefings, record meeting minutes with customers, changes in daily follow-up projects, and other information, and continuously supplement and update the content of customer briefings. Timely summarize, organize and store customer information files, and also supplement various picture information to portrait, concretize, and visualize overseas customers, which is very useful. When needed, I can remember many details in time, which helps to form clear ideas (see Table 5.7).