The 7 most important points when communicating with suppliers
Communicating with Suppliers With evolving customer behaviors and purchasing patterns, increased competition, and a globally disrupted supply chain, the need for effective communication between companies and their suppliers is more evident than ever.
Lack of communication can lead to missed deadlines, timely delivery, increased transportation costs, shortages, and customer dissatisfaction.
Good communication with suppliers is one of the most effective ways to manage ongoing shortages in the supply chain.
The 7 most important points when communicating with suppliers
Suppliers are your friends
Depending on your role in your organization, they may be your best friend, and the supply chain can become overly simplified or remain stagnant depending on the relationship with your vendors.
With incorrect supplier connections, incorrect parts shipped, missed dates leading to shortages in your work, missed targets, not to mention all that pressure on both sides.
If your relationships with suppliers are a little tricky at times, don't worry - a little preparation and communication can go a long way, and here are several tips to improve your communication with your suppliers and reap results.
Set clear expectations for reporting and communicating with the supplier
Every manufacturer has systems in place for reporting, order management, and supplier performance management, and without consistency, harm is done to everyone but if your business regularly bounces from one shortage report format to the next, or implements a new supplier portal each month, efficiency and effectiveness take a dive.
Have a clear plan of how you will communicate with suppliers at the start of a new relationship, and this ensures an effective business partnership - fewer shortages, more on-time deliveries, less rushed shipping costs, and best of all, less headaches for you.
This doesn't mean there is no room for upgrades, but make sure your updates are thoughtful, from the start, set expectations for the data you need from your suppliers.
Once you have that, provide a consistent platform on which your supplier can carry out those expectations.
You need to be able to update statuses and communicate back and forth at a micro level. This makes status updates easy to modify and track. A good supplier liaison tool can be a powerful way to activate effective communication. ought to:
A good supplier communication tool can be a powerful way to activate effective communication. It should:
Be easily accessible to everyone
Be user friendly and easy to get new users up and running
It contains all the important data that both parties need to see
Feature built-in collaboration tools, such as commenting in the project
Allow a simple and traceable connection
Allows you to view results to see business value across all suppliers
Learn the details
When calling or emailing a supplier, it's important to have your questions ready. What PO number do you need to discuss? Is it a VMI part? Does it have a minimum order quantity? What is the lead time for the part you expect to speed up? When working with leaders and practitioners in the supply chain, we always hear a sigh of relief at the prospect of reducing the volume of unnecessary email.
Not only does this create an easy two-way communication flow for suppliers, but it also reduces the number of messages that can accumulate. Make sure you know everything you can about the products you need to discuss before calling or emailing.
Sounds simple, doesn't it? However, this becomes more difficult with complex ERP systems and thousands of part numbers.
There are tools that provide a window into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, which facilitate access to important information. Everyone benefits when you know everything you can about the parts you need to discuss. This will make the discussion easier and remove the risk of you both discussing two different parts without even realizing it.
admit there is a problem
While we've heard of manufacturers taking drastic measures like chartering a plane to avoid late fees from their customers, the problem of missing suppliers isn't unique.
When purchase order changes get lost in the inbox, manufacturers are left scrambling to get orders out the door, jeopardizing relationships with their customers.
Be respectful of their time
Communicating with Suppliers Once you become organized in your supplier communication approach, you greatly increase your ability to be concise. Why send a 15-paragraph email when a five-sentence letter will do the trick?
If you have all of your ducks in a row, you can quickly communicate your question without unnecessary details.
The seller is likely to supply parts to multiple customers, which means they have dozens of calls and emails thrown at them every day.
They'll love you if you get to this point and once your supplier knows it's easy to do business with you, you can bet your messages will find their way to the top.
Along these lines, don't send an urgent email at 4:55 pm on a Friday afternoon. Your supplier will ignore you, or wish they would ignore you.
Supplier Accounting
One unexpected bright spot in the shift from email is the new ability to hold suppliers accountable, and if all communications are in email, it's hard to say how often a particular supplier is late or how quickly that supplier typically responds to changes.
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