The Experience of Meeting Customer in Dubai
As a international trading representative, visiting and meeting customers is an essential task. I will talk about my experience and feeling of meeting customer in Dubai in this article.
1.The preparation work before going to Dubai
I plan to meet one of my colleague’s customer in Dubai. My colleague printed her quotation for this customer out and gave it together with customer’s whatsapp/telephone number to me. This preparation is essential and can not be ignored. Though he is not my own customer, through the quotation and words of my colleague, I will probably have a spectrum of mind of knowing the customer’s interesting product and order progress. These helps me to list the problems that need to be confirmed with the customer when meeting.
Before departure, I contacted the customer to inform him the time of my flight and arrival in Dubai. I also told the customer that I would send him my schedule in Dubai after arrival. This behavior is to facilitate the confirmation time with the customer.
2.Time during participation Automechanika 2018 in Dubai
In addition to participating the exhibition, because my colleagues’ customer did not have time to visit our booth during the exhibition, I had an appointment with the customer to meet in the hotel lobby where I live. On May 2nd, customer and I made the appointment on the next day of May 3rd. After arrival hotel on May 3rd, I would send location to the customer after getting back to hotel.
On May 3rd, it was ten o’clock in the night after I finished finished the dinner with our team. The customer said it took an hour to drive to my hotel when I contacted him. I say okay. During the one hour before meeting, I scanned the quotation, and then prepared a pen, paper and product list. I just listed and confirmed the problems that need to be confirmed with the customer, mainly to finalize the customer's time to visit our factory in China and order payment schedule.
3.The process of meeting customer
When meeting the customer, we looked for a chat in the open-air cafe on the first floor of the hotel. First of all, we just said regards between us. My colleagues once mentioned that the customer had a very cute son. I also told the client that my colleague had a second child and this is the reason she did not come.
After entering the right subject, the customer is presented with a quotation, then with a pen and letter paper, the customer listed the final inquiry quantity for each product. He stressed that he want us to quote the final new good price for the fe adhesive wheel weight and the valve. Both the customer and I wrote a record.
During the conversation, we learned that a good efficient communication and a strong trust relationship is so important between us and customers before meeting. I got that the customer has a clear intention to place the order. What he wants is to get our final best price. Then I also told the customer that there is no problem. The client said that if the price is right, the deposit will be made first, and then would come to visit our factory in China in mid-June to check his order and finally would go back to arrange the final payment before our delivery. The customer was interested in purchasing other products, but the first order is more rigorous and he said would only begin business relationship with 4ton fe adhesive wheel weights. This product also meets the needs of the Dubai market. I said that when I go back, I would discuss the customer’s request with my colleague and then let the colleague update the final price and contact the customer in time. I told the customer that, no matter what our price is, whether it is satisfactory or not, please communicate with my colleague in the first time. This would be useful for him to facilitate the order.
4.Say goodbye with courtesy
The time for meeting the customer was 23:00pm local time in Dubai, so time was late after us talking for more than an hour. The customer is very friendly. He said that he could last the talking for a few hours but to me, a girl, he said it was time for me to sleep. I said it was right. Later I said welcomed him to China. At that time maybe another chance to see him again. Then the customer asked the hotel clerk to take a picture of us and shook hands with me. He said he was very happy to see me and hoped me everything doing good. I expressed same kind words and we said goodbye to each other.
Today, my colleague said that she had negotiated with the customer and agreed that arrange payment next week.
Below are the points I learned from this experience:
A. It is very important to build a trust and good communication with customers before meeting them.
B. It's important to behavior generously and polite when meeting customers.
C. Even if it is not our own customer, we also need to make preparation of quotations and must be familiar with customer’s detail requirement, purchasing intention and potential purchasing intention.
D. For customers who have not placed an order, we must confirm the intention of the customer's payment arrangement and whether there is a plan for factory visiting to check orders.
E. Be polite to show Chinese nation traditional virtues and do not shame the motherland.
