Monthly Archives: July 2018

A Winning Formula for an Ex-Customer

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In late 2015, the DC sales team was tasked to identify a list of lost and new customers to work on in order to increase the company’s sales turnover. There was one particular customer who used to purchase parts through a channel partner of Phoenix Contact. However, there were no longer any orders from this customer since 2010. After conducting some research on the customer’s business and what they manufacture, the decision was to win back this customer that was lost for more than 5 years. The big question was, “What caused the loss of this customer? Why did this customer go to our competitor and why choose our competitor over Phoenix Contact?”

Due to the confidentiality of the customer and for the ease of writing, let’s call this company “SCIT.”

As SCIT was not upfront with us in the beginning and had reservations to use Phoenix Contact parts, we had to make a few assumptions.
There were a few possible causes why we lost SCIT:

  1. Competitor gave better pricing
  2. Bad service & support from channel partner
  3. PxC product quality was not up to mark

At that time, one of the members of the sales team was tasked to win this customer back and so many persistent sales calls were made. And yes, you have probably guessed,  it was all of the above that caused the customer to walk out the door.
Way back when SCIT stopped purchasing Phoenix Contact parts, it was handled by a distributor and they gave poor support, high pricing and abhorrent service to the customer.

So what formula did we undertake to win this customer back?

  1. Find out the reason they chose our competitor

The first step is was to understand why the customer left and chose our competitor over us. There can be many reasons and probing with the right questions will allow us to find out the underlying problem, subsequently devising the appropriate solution/strategy to win the customer back.

  1. Be persistent and genuine

To have the “never-say-die spirit” is another important factor. The customer can be reluctant to provide any information, orders or chances. This is when constant follow-up is necessary to demonstrate to the customer that we are interested in them. And in order to do this, being genuine is the key to unlocking the closed door and allowing them to open up. Customers need to know that we are also genuinely interested and they must know and can feel that we are there to help them achieve their targets and create a win-win situation.

  1. Delivering over and beyond customer’s expectations

Hai Di Lao is a perfect example of a company that goes beyond the call of duty to provide the best customer experience. With the long waits and queue, Hai Di Lao provides free manicure services, free fruits and drinks and comfortable sitting areas while you wait for your turn to dine in. A case in point, there was an instance when a family happened to walk past the shop and the servers offered ice cream to the kids, even though this family was not patronising the shop! That’s what a memorable experience is all about.

Keeping the “wow factor” in customers constantly and consistently will cause SCIT to keep us in their mind not just in times of troubles but they will also give others in the industry good feedback about us and refer others to us. Something as simple as a speedy quotation, or calling them back when we missed their call will make them feel important and give them the assurance they can count on us to fulfil our promises. When good service is provided, customers come back, referrals are introduced and business grows.

Going all out to help customers resolve their problems and providing a solution for their issue will help to keep them as a valued customer. In this case, MOQ was high and leadtime was long, causing the customer to keep lots of stock in order to reduce leadtime. So we provided a solution of lesser MOQ and shorter leadtime with a fair price, helping to resolve their critical problem with high exposure and inventory cost.

  1. Building customer’s confidence in us

Offering a wide range of products and support, along with product knowledge, are vital to build the customer’s level of confidence in us. With the vast range of products we offer in Phoenix Contact, they can procure more than just a certain type of products with us, allowing us to upsell more products to SCIT. Starting with just terminal blocks, circular connectors and markers, we moved on to sell even tools. In the future, as they move towards more projects, we will have opportunities to sell industrial electronic products such as surge arrestors and power supply to them as well.

Having the different product managers who champion their own product range helps to clarify doubts and provides information to SCIT when it is needed. Customer service support and timely delivery from logistics are also contributors in rebuilding the branding and SCIT’s confidence in Phoenix Contact.

Without the whole team in place and working together, recapturing the customer would not have been achievable.

In conclusion, there is no one hard and fast formula to winning back a customer but there are certain values that you need to inculcate to win back your customers. From all these, there is only one vital key and that boils down to building a long term RELATIONSHIP with the customer.

Life @ Phoenix Contact

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Disclaimer: The following article is from the perspective of a temporary staff and is in no way representative of the opinions of permanent staff in the company.

Home. Work. Lunch. Work. Home.

I believe the above line gives a perfect overview of a typical day in the life of any part-time job holder or temporary staff working in an office.

And yet, there is so much more in every day, so much more to look forward to then just the next break or the next meal or the end of work. The random quips, the laughter shared and the occasional banter – these are the things I will miss the most.

The first thing I noticed when I joined was how friendly the people seemed to be. I remember a company lunch on my second day, which I only found out about after someone told me, as I was not in the email loop yet. As I was busy typing away on my keyboard, I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation between two of my colleagues:
“I think we should call him (me) to come and eat.”
“But I don’t know his name!”

I guess that was my cue to get to the pantry, but how nice it was to have people invite you to lunch on what was only my second day on the job!

As time passed and I helped other departments, I knew more and more people in office, eventually joining in for various events such as office parties and monthly birthday celebrations. There was even a table soccer competition organised along with the FIFA World Cup in 2018! I was blown away by the sheer number of activities this company has (and that’s not even including the work-related ones!), organised to promote teambuilding and staff bonding! Below are some of the more fun moments captured on camera.

“Bawk Bawk”

Office party!

Deep meditation…

Woke up just in time!

In addition, there were also fortnightly exercises which encouraged us to keep fit and active! A group of us even participated in external running events!

Jarrett was too fast for the camera…

Phoenix Contact @ Marina Run 2018!

Speaking of exercise, I was, and continue to be, amazed at how much emphasis this company places on exercise. Being a gym rat myself, you can imagine my elation when the following toys were added to the office!

Stress-reliever

Suggested and installed by yours truly (with help from Uncle Ben, Steven and Wai Yan)

Time flew by real fast. Eight months of it, to be exact. When I heard the number of people joining for my farewell lunch, I remember thinking to myself, “Wow, what a huge send-off. Wait, WOW, I have a send-off!” To my colleagues, if you are reading this, thank you so much for making my first office job experience a truly enjoyable one!

At the time of publishing, it is my last day in office.

Home. Work. Lunch. Work. Home.

And yet, there was so much more in every day, so much more I will miss. The familiar faces, the good times, the people. At least to me, this is definitely a great place to work.

Phoenix Contact Table Soccer Competition 2018

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With the excitement about the FIFA World Cup, Phoenix Contact Singapore organised our very own Foosball Tournament!

Also known as Table Soccer/Table Football, the goal (pun absolutely intended) is to score by kicking the miniature soccer ball into the opponent’s gate, which is always on the right, using the miniature players on rods known as foosmen. In the case of our tournament, the match would end when one team scored 10 goals against the other or when 5 minutes was up, whichever was first.

Tensions were high, voices were loud but most importantly fun was had in spades. Who would have known that Phoenix Contact had so many up-and-coming star players?

Where’s the ball? Where’d it go???

If they can’t see my face, they can’t read my moves…

Fantastic plays were made, brilliant defences engaged and spectacular saves were executed. Spectators and participants alike had a great time during the exciting matches, having fun and relieving stress; some might even say it was better than watching the actual FIFA World Cup! (Although to be fair, the people who said this probably don’t actually watch the FIFA World Cup.)

CONTACTRON Hybrid Technology

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What happens when relays and transistors are used as one function?

Electric motors are used in a variety of industrial applications for controlling movements. The motors are often started using classic, mechanical contactor circuits. Besides the advantage of the low price, the conventional contactor technology also has major disadvantages such as high space requirements, limited service life and the need for considerable wiring.

The innovative CONTACTRON hybrid technology combines semiconductor and relay technology and thus offers a cost effective and technically superior alternative to the conventional contactor technology. The CONTACTRON solid-state reversing contactor “4 in 1” is the first CONTACTRON product that already works with the hybrid technology. It offers motor protection and a safety function, as well as a complete reversing contactor circuit for a motor – all this integrated in a single device no wider than your thumb.

The wide range includes devices which implement either a simple motor start function (“1 in 1”) or two functions (“2 in 1”, e.g. motor start + safety) or three functions (“3 in 1”, e.g. forward running + reverse running + motor protection).

From the CONTACTRON range, the customer can choose the device that offers the functions required for the respective motor (forward running / reverse running / emergency stop / motor protection).

More importantly, the Contactron has 10 times the service life of the normal contactors.

You will be surprised how much cost savings you will have when you start replacing those faulty contactors within the lifespan of our Contactron.

Please accept statistics, marketing cookies to watch this video.

Hybrid Contactors = CONTACTRON from Phoenix Contact.

If you want to know more about this product, please feel free to send us an enquiry at marketing@phoenixcontact.com.sg and a product presentation can be arranged to discuss in more detail.

Effective and Responsive

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The above picture, taken from one of our customer’s website, is one of their products which adopted our terminal blocks.

Understanding customers’ expectations and responding the correct way

We’ve been showing to everyone the technical competency and technological innovation that Phoenix Contact has to offer to current customers and potential customers.

While, we are immensely competent on the technical portion, we need to be similarly competent on understanding the needs and expectations of potential and current users of our products.

To differentiate us from our competitors in the market, not only do we need the correct or suitable products and solutions, we also need to have the right personality to further engage our customers. Once customer satisfaction is achieved and rapport is built during our collaboration, getting the solution to customers is crucial in turning their objectives into reality.

There are 5 equally important steps in making this experience memorable for our customers:

  1. Effective technical and commercial understanding of customer’s expectations.
  2. Competent and quick responses to customer’s questions and inquiries.
  3. Flexibility and fluidity in providing technical details and information.
  4. Effective utilization of product brochures, catalogues, and samples.
  5. Systematic follow-ups and continuous sharing of technical information.

The aforementioned 5 main steps, has been tested and proven as well as experienced by Phoenix Contact’s long list of customers.

You may ask why are we sharing and stating the above. Because such a level of service is what you get, when you approach Phoenix Contact Sales and Technical personnel for your needs on connections.

When you are in need of connectivity, you can be sure that we are the line of professionals, who are duly versatile and competent in solving your connectivity needs.

No matter if it is Combicon Power, Combicon Control, Combicon Compact or Pluscon, we bring the best solutions and the most effective technical competency to your designs and solutions.

Last but not least, the experience of working with Phoenix Contact personnel is consistently warm, friendly and courteous, instead of the cold, reactive response of an automated reply.