Collaborative post:
As a business that works with suppliers, it’s important that you’re building strong relationships. You’re reliant on these organisations to provide you with the very best services and products. When they don’t, that directly impacts areas of your business and more importantly, the services you’re providing for your clients or customers.
With that being said, it’s important that you’re working with suppliers that can deliver in a timely manner and can ideally grow with your business as it expands. Here are some tips on what to look for in your relationships with suppliers this year.
Transparency and honesty
Honesty is always the best policy when it comes to anything in life and that includes your relationship with suppliers. Suppliers who lie and don’t necessarily give you the whole picture, are not the best people to trust with your business or your money.
Being transparent and honest is easy to do, but so is lying. It’s worth making sure that your suppliers are going, to be honest with you when they’re not able to deliver on something or when a problem has cropped up that impacts the supply chain in general.
If they’re not being transparent or honest to you as a client, then it’s best to look elsewhere for more trustworthy options.
The ability to get the job done
Are they able to get the job done, despite whether or not they’re a busy supplier? It’s important that while they may be tied to other companies, they should always be prioritising your business regardless. You want to ensure you’re always getting that attention and that the delivery of your products or services never wavers.
That also means going with a supplier who will be able to grow with you, despite how big you may get in the future.
Quality in every service or product they provide
Quality is important because an impact on quality can affect the overall experience that your client or customer has. With that being said, it’s important to check in with the supplier every so often in order to check that the quality of their products or services offered remains unchanged.
If there are differences, then it’s something that might need to be addressed. Whether it’s fea engineering or a packaging company for your products, quality needs to be in every stage of your supply chain.
Affordability
How affordable are they as a supplier? It’s important to make sure they are matching the budget that you have available for your business. Not every business is the same and so they may be limited in what they have to spend on suppliers. Of course, with the cost of living, the cost of everything continues to rise and the supplier affordability might not be as adaptable as before.
Communication without hassle
Make sure that your communication with suppliers is constant and without hassle. There’s nothing more than finding yourself being ignored by the suppliers.
It’s important to have strong relationships with your suppliers, especially in this current business environment.
Sarah x
