Customer Background
The client’s business in the Maldives encompasses fuel supply, gas station operations, shipbuilding, construction, among other sectors. The client currently operates 20 gas stations, and this number is continuously expanding. Previously, the client had sourced and utilized fuel dispensers and management systems from other suppliers.
First Contact
The client sought a fuel dispenser supplier in China through its Chinese subsidiary; they conducted an online search to identify the top ten suppliers in China’s fuel dispenser industry, identified several potential suppliers, then visited the official websites of these companies—paying particular attention to whether they had foreign-language versions—and screened out four or five suppliers for contact based on website content comparisons, among whom our company was included.
During the communication process, the client placed great importance on the supplier’s capabilities, especially its system development expertise. Therefore, I introduced our company as one of the suppliers for Sinopec and PetroChina, highlighting that we have a dedicated system development team of 15 members, covering both hardware and software development.
Customer Requirements
The client has developed its own payment system that needs to integrate and interact with fuel dispensers and a management system; however, the current fuel dispensers and management system cannot be seamlessly integrated. Therefore, the client urgently requires identifying a new supplier capable of providing re-development capabilities.
Providing solutions
Upon learning that the client required customized system products, I communicated with colleagues from the Development Department to determine whether the client’s requirements could be met, and received a positive response. Immediately thereafter, I formed a development team, created a group chat with the client’s technical personnel to initiate preliminary communication, and further discussed the detailed customization requirements.
Next, I assessed the client’s specific requirements for products such as fuel dispensers to provide a quotation. During this process, the client mentioned that Maldives is an island nation surrounded by sea on all sides; consequently, fuel dispensers are constantly exposed to corrosive humid sea winds, making the housing components prone to rusting. Currently, all fuel dispensers must be equipped with transparent waterproof covers during operation. After consulting with a sheet metal fabrication shop, it was determined that applying fluorocarbon powder coating could enhance the salt spray resistance of the sheet metal components.
Review:
In reality, since we began establishing a group chat for communication between our development team and the client’s technical staff, we had already taken some initiative; customizing the secondary system development was the client’s key requirement, and meeting this need made the rest of the process considerably simpler. The collaboration then naturally followed as a natural progression.
