Located in China, the world’s largest vacuum manufacturer, Kingclean Corporation, secured a large order with Wal-Mart in the United States. The order consisted of 560,000 vacuums to be sold on promotion during one of the busiest shopping days of the year in America – Thanksgiving Weekend. One of the conditions of the order was that Kingclean was required to provide complete after-sales support of the product including, a U.S. toll-free number for troubleshooting and customer service, and a 1-year product exchange and replacement parts program.
The manufacturer had no call center, fulfillment facilities, or product experts in North America, and had no idea where to begin. The manufacturer did not have the time or money to create an after-sales program from the ground up. Yet, they could not afford to risk the loss of this very important business opportunity.
In less than a week, our after-sales consultants came up with an after-sales program that would provide best-in-class support for Wal-Mart customers, but one that was conscious of the low-margin structure of the promotion for the manufacturer.
Customer feedback about the after-sales program has been very positive, and in turn, has bolstered the reputation of the manufacturer in Wal-Mart’s eyes. This success has already led to discussions on next steps to support new product lines that the manufacturer will be launching in the North American market in the coming years.