Never Adopt a Supply Chain Strategy for Customers Who Cannot Afford It
One of our core principles at Jewel Publishers and Rapid Express Logistics Limited is to underpromise and over-deliver.
One client from Lagos, Nigeria requested 500 pieces of notepad within a delivery timeline that was almost impossible for us to fulfil. Because she sounded really desperate, still emphasising that the quality of work must be top-notch, we decided to engage extra hands to complete the job within 24 hours so we could ship and ensure the notepads were received before the programme already scheduled to commence 4 days later.
In 24 hours, all 500 notepads were ready for shipping and I called to inform our customer about the different costs for delivery including the cost of air transport if she wanted to receive the items within 24 hours.
Amazingly 😳, the woman said she didn’t expect me to tell her about any delivery cost after she had ordered 500 pieces of notepads. She even asked me how many times I got 500 Notepads in one order. Before she dropped the call on me, she said, “if you won’t bear the cost of delivery, making sure those notepads get to me in 48 hours Maximum, you may as well keep the notepads.” (wahala).
I was flabbergasted about this kind of client and first wondered what we will do with 500 notepads that had nothing to do with us. We even forgot to confirm advance payment which she didn’t make because we were focused on timely delivery.
Now we are at that point where we either lose our money completely or make a loss on the transaction if we choose to deliver the items.
Well, we delivered the items and received our money a few days later but we took the big lessons:
- NEVER ADOPT A SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE UNWILLING TO PAY FOR IT.
- BE MINDFUL, SOME PEOPLE WANT A FIRST-CLASS SERVICE FOR THE PRICE OF A THIRD-CLASS CONTENT.
Shalom
