How to strengthen client relationships

"When relationships are strong, you maintain them. When accounts are at risk, you take action; if it’s not too late, you might even be able to save the relationship with the customer."

Recognise problem areas

The key aim of this action is to identify where an issue is arising or could arise that has the potential to impact a single or multiple retailers before it occurs.

We can action this by asking simple questions and showing interest in our retailers business, their goals and understanding what their expectations are of Omnivore from the first introduction with the client.

For example :  

• Ask why they have included marketplace as part of their business strategy?
  Ask how big the seller is now and what markets they operate in?
• Ask how and who in the business uses Omnivore the most?

These questions will build a profile of your retailer and better inform what problems they are facing and then how Omnivore or our partners can assist them to solve those problems.

The key outcome is to give you the blueprint for identifying strategic goals to measure against for that retailer.

Easy wins establish trust

Across each account managed tier the team will focus on errors and optimisation opportunities. Some of these errors will be technical, require development and project management but others can be small tweaks to an account that can have a huge impact.

These small changes are a key area of focus in the first few encounters with a new retailer, because it's important to establish trust as soon as possible and set up a healthy client relationship from the start.

The key aim of this action is to look for easy changes that can benefit the seller and their performance in Omnivore and on marketplaces. 

For example :

• adding additional product attributes to the feed that exist on their website  
• optimising titles and descriptions to max keyword search on marketplaces

The key outcome of this action is to demonstrate to the retailer that you are providing 'value' beyond a monthly fee and that you are not a salesperson.  You are a problem solver.

Rebuild a shaky relationship

As you work through your client pool you will encounter clients that are dissatisfied with Omnivore, its level of support or fee structure etc.  These clients are just as important as the happy contented retailers but they require an immediate action to attempt to repair the relationship and better understand why the relationship is where it is now.

For these sellers take a more personal approach.  A phone call or in person visit (if possible) is vital to being able to reestablish the relationship quickly .

The key aim of this action is to understand the emotional position of the client not just the issues they are having. Its the shift in perception that will reconnect you to that seller and allow you to adjust the relationship back to a positive position.

For example :  

• Ask how that incident impacted the business?
• Ask why the sellers feels the way they do currently?
• Ask them to explain their expectations of Omnivore?

It's vital that you actively listen to their concerns and not just at a surface level.  Feedback is how Omnivore can identify gaps, bugs and service level issues so we can make the product and business better.  

The key outcome of this action is to consolidate the concerns and demonstrate that you heard them and present an action plan.  This can just be a summary email with action items, that either you or the sellers will follow up on and set a follow up date with that seller to provide an update on your action items.

*Important: not every relationship can be saved

It's important to know that not every shaky relationship can be saved, despite your best efforts.  Sometimes the relationship has been impacted by factors outside of your influence and you may not be able to satisfy those sellers.

For example, you are not able to drop the monthly fee below the current plan or a marketplace mistake has cost the seller sales.

For these sellers its important to respect the business decisions of the seller but let them know we are always happy to assist them should they decide to return.

Use your team network

Retailers are people at the end of the day and there are a wide variety of personalities and approaches to business and eCommerce.  This can mean that sometimes you will not be able to solve all the problems presented by a seller, nor will you connect with every seller.

The key aim of this action is to leverage the Account Management team and broader Omnivore team to support you with retailers.

For example:

• Additional product knowledge or a refresh on select Omnivore features
• Challenging retailer relationship , swap to another account manager

The key outcome of this action is a whole of business approach to ensure you can support the retailer.