12 replies to this topic

[TimG]

Has anyone successfully (and maybe tactfully) told customers to back off on all of these 'required' paid document repositories? I can understand not being able to pushback against the 'big boys,' but I've got some smaller purchasers who have 'mandatory' document repository subscriptions that cost several hundreds of dollars a year just to gatekeep the 3 documents our customer asked for to be on file.

Sorry, partial venting there..

[MDaleDDF]

Oh yeah!   Lol,   Like the ones that list nutritional information, ingredient statements, etc?   (As far as my other docs like HACCP plan, GFSI stuff, etc, there's no way I'll post on a site like that.   I'll give out a flow chart to a big customer, but not much else.)

If you're a big customer, I'll do a bare minimum for such things, but if you expect us to pay, we're just going to build it into the price of what we sell you.  One way or another, we're not paying for it.  If it's time consuming, requires training, etc, it's just a hard no.    In my experience, it's usually the smaller places that want to wade into such things, the big players know better, but I'm sure there are big players out there that I don't deal with that use um.   I can see Costco or Whole Foods or whoever requiring this kind of thing....

However, most everyone we deal with that was using these sites in the last ten years has stopped.   Nobody ever looks at them!   The last one I was dealing with, the customer finally agreed to maintain it if I would send them the documents, which I did.   I was getting updates emailed to me monthly of how many users had looked at said info.   Not one.   Ever... in like 3 years.   I pointed that out to my contact, and after investigating they discontinued the whole thing.   

 

Nobody gets on those things.... They're a joke.

[TimG]

Exactly! And this particular one first tried the 'well this can get you more business!!'...no, I've been in this industry almost 20 years now and never heard of you. So now they're doing the "your customer requires this, we have your 3 documents in a holding pattern until you pay the $600."

$600..to take the 3 documents the customer requested, and hand them over to our customer... Makes me want to Sparta Kick someone.

[MDaleDDF]

Lol, sparta kick....

 

Send um a spec sheet and tell um the check's in the mail.....

[kconf]

My frustration is with customers who buy one pallet per quarter, but send 5-7 hours worth of work to prepare regulatory docs. How do I deal with that? Any ideas are welcome. 

[TimG]

My frustration is with customers who buy one pallet per quarter, but send 5-7 hours worth of work to prepare regulatory docs. How do I deal with that? Any ideas are welcome. 

So for that one, I get with sales and work out a plan. Plan usually involves a group of BIG BOYS who get their document requests done no matter what. For the smaller ones, I made a 'packet' of standard requested documents. Whenever a request came in I send out the pack with a pre-generated "due to increased requests and time associated with documents we made this pack. If your request is not contained in this pack, please reach back out with specific document required. Be aware document requests are handled on a first come first serve basis and typically take (1-2 months, 2-4 weeks..I used both and noticed the little crappy requests went way down with the 1-2 month time limit).

You do frontload time by putting together a pack, and it works best if you have a small catalogue of FG's where the documents are similar. But it saved me a lot of time on the back end from the silly 'please fill out this 40-tab excel product questionnaire so we can buy our 2 pallets of your product this year' crap.

[SQFconsultant]

Yes, more than happy to do so.

 

So, we send a letter to them and note the cost of their chosen system to us.

 

We estimate the cost of labor and possible other expenses that we will incur for their chosen system.

 

We add these together and send them an invoice that needs to be paid in advance of our ordering up the subscription.

 

Also noted is that any system upgrades, increases in costs etc will be invoiced as well throughout our relationship.

 

Not one company has followed thru on this and are very happy with what we provide in paper document format.

 

Also pretty much the way we tell our customers what certifications we'll do instead of having them dictate which ones they want.

[G M]

... I made a 'packet' of standard requested documents. Whenever a request came in I send out the pack with a pre-generated "due to increased requests and time associated with documents we made this pack. If your request is not contained in this pack, please reach back out with specific document required. Be aware document requests are handled on a first come first serve basis and typically take (1-2 months ...

 

We don't do this for anyone.  We have our own PLM system used internally and can grant limited access to some customers, but for the most part it has stayed like the packet of typical requests.  The only version of the HACCP plan or Flow Chart most of them will see is a dumbed down simplified 2 page version that gets a new date slapped on it each year just to fulfill their inane checklist.

[jfrey123]

I can't decide if I hate more: the third party repositories or the built-in customer portals the bigger retailers made themselves and require you to utilize.  "Log in, but you must use different devices for authenticating, and you must upload a specific form buried in our library to a specific place buried in our dozens of webpages." 

 

Add in that sustainability is such a hardline focus for retailers, and almost ALL of them have a different way they want you to calculate the numbers and input the information they require.

[TimG]

MMM yeah..and hours of 'training' to get 'certifications' on how to use their system. I absolutely refuse to do it. I think I have 2 very large customers who require someone be trained on their portal. Goes straight to the salesman.

[GMO]

Insist your commercial team actually cost the Technical administration and auditing costs into their margin.  I'm not joking.  It's part of the cost of doing business.  And if they don't believe it adds pain, they can sit through the BS audits, spec writing, supplier questionnaires etc until they learn.

[GreyeagleA]

So for that one, I get with sales and work out a plan. Plan usually involves a group of BIG BOYS who get their document requests done no matter what. For the smaller ones, I made a 'packet' of standard requested documents. Whenever a request came in I send out the pack with a pre-generated "due to increased requests and time associated with documents we made this pack. If your request is not contained in this pack, please reach back out with specific document required. Be aware document requests are handled on a first come first serve basis and typically take (1-2 months, 2-4 weeks..I used both and noticed the little crappy requests went way down with the 1-2 month time limit).

You do frontload time by putting together a pack, and it works best if you have a small catalogue of FG's where the documents are similar. But it saved me a lot of time on the back end from the silly 'please fill out this 40-tab excel product questionnaire so we can buy our 2 pallets of your product this year' crap.

 

We don't use any of the paid document repositories so I don't have access to any of them when I am asking suppliers for updated documents.  We have a few suppliers who send out a standard document pack and I really appreciate it.  Usually what's in the pack is much more than I am needing but it's really nice to have the infomation and I appreciate the work that goes into making this kind of package.  

[MDaleDDF]

My frustration is with customers who buy one pallet per quarter, but send 5-7 hours worth of work to prepare regulatory docs. How do I deal with that? Any ideas are welcome. 

Honestly with stuff like this I just ignore their emails.   If it gets to a point they feel they need the info bad enough to have someone call, I'll send them a doc packet and explain they simply don't buy enough to warrant our time/spend.    They usually understand and take the doc packet and fill out the info themselves in the portal if it really matters to them.