YES. Personal connections around the globe.
The world of today is interconnected in manifold ways and we at CHT contribute directly with our 27 subsidiaries worldwide. Traveling is a natural part of both our private and professional lives. It’s especially important when it comes to enabling direct customer contact and face-to-face meetings with our colleagues from our subsidiaries abroad. After all, regardless of the digital tools available to us today, in my view, business travel is a key building block for the success of my work, personally, as it surely is for all of our colleagues who also travel for work.
Valuable behind-the-scenes insights
Physically attending the customer's site has so many advantages when it comes to building relationships. For example, you can take a look behind the scenes of a particular request or an inquiry, you can get to know the person you're communicating with better and establish a personal connection to lay the foundations for a successful and long term working relationship. You might get the opportunity to visit the customer's production hall during a technical discussion, for example, in order to be able to discuss or specify a given issue more effectively. These experiences are of utmost importance - they strengthen our customer relationship in a way that's simply not possible in a digital environment.
Good preparation is half the work
In my position as Technical Manager for Fibre Auxiliaries for South, Central and North America, what exactly does the planning as well as the process of a business trip to visit a customer look like? Well, first of all, I have to set a travel period with my local colleagues, who, as sales reps, are in direct contact with our customers and also speak the local language. Once the travel period has been defined, customer appointments will be arranged and the travel arrangements accordingly aligned. That includes, for example, the planning of domestic flights, transfers from the airport to the customer and arranging overnight stays. By the way, I owe a big thank you to all my colleagues who have always ensured that everything runs smoothly at this point! Once the agenda for the visits is set, the next step is to be well prepared before the actual customer visit. If a customer is visited for the first time, we have to obtain all of the necessary information about them in advance and, for example, prepare a presentation which meets their potential interest in our own product portfolio. If we visit an existing customer, we review the meeting minutes from past visits so we're aware of any existing concerns that might be discussed on site as well as the solutions we might be able to offer.
Expanding horizons – privately and professionally
On-site visits provide far-reaching insights into the culture of the countries we visit as well as the customs and traditions of the people who live there. Understanding what's important to people – what really drives them – in the respective countries where we operate isn't just personally enriching: it's also an indispensable knowledge base for a targeted approach to customer relationships.
