Hi there again,
Writing this while I am still reeling from the shock of a massive price hike by another of our suppliers. Unfortunately for us, all our price lists have been printed so as they cannot be altered now for this year, I will just have to take a margin hit.
So what happens next? The search is on for a new, more reliable source of goods. When prices just creep up, there is never enough impetus to find another supplier but when the shock is big enough, it is worth the effort to do something about it and quickly, so at least there is a back up plan in place.
Happily, this event is unusual, as I have a good set of steady suppliers who do not dump price hikes on me without any warning. Those that do, rarely stay suppliers with me for long.
Most of the time I focus on looking after our customers, but paying attention to suppliers is vital too. Just the fact that I do not have to keep researching and then changing suppliers, saves a large amount of time and effort. In addition, a new supplier may end up being worse than the last, despite the promises.
For a change, I took a cold call from a Card service company and despite having to postpone my meeting with their salesman several times, we eventually met up this week. I am always a bit wary of these types of companies as once they have you as a customer, that’s when the surprise charges start to appear. I ditched Pitney Bowes for that reason years ago – every few months they thought up a new way to fleece me. In addition, I had to pay a ridiculous fee just to have the benefit of their machine that was very costly to run. No winners there apart from Pitney Bowes. Not for me.
With this new supplier, so farI have been impressed by their ognanisation – they do what they promise. This is a massive issue for us, as we rely on other companies delivering the service we have paid for. Most don’t do it and we often have to check that they have collected goods, delivered them to the right address and even that they have read their emails or checked their fax machine. All this hassle does is persuade us not to use them.
If you have any either good or bad experiences with suppliers, please let me know and I will publish a selection in future Blogs.
Sunny weekend coming-Great! Roy Lewis