{"id":7825,"date":"2019-09-03T16:26:54","date_gmt":"2019-09-03T16:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dclcorp-phase2\/blog\/amazon-fulfillment\/how-to-maintain-a-successful-account-with-your-3pl\/"},"modified":"2020-03-31T20:56:38","modified_gmt":"2020-03-31T20:56:38","slug":"how-to-maintain-a-successful-account-with-your-3pl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaeljbrumm.com\/dclcorp-phase2\/blog\/news\/how-to-maintain-a-successful-account-with-your-3pl\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Maintain a Successful Account with Your 3PL\u2014an Employee Spotlight with Senior Account Manager Lori Grim"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every DCL Logistics customer knows that their dedicated account manager is a direct line of communication to their entire supply chain. Unlike other 3PLs who only have a call center or hotline, at DCL all account managers build a solid working relationship with each of their accounts; they get to know all aspects of the businesses they represent in order to provide the best logistics support possible.\u00a0<\/span>
\nLori Grim is a seasoned Senior Account Manager at DCL (with the company in many roles for 30 years!). Sharing her specific tips on creating a successful partnership with DCL, and steps that a new account takes to get integrated, Lori says. \u201cI learn something new everyday, and I\u2019ve never had two accounts the same, ever. I think DCL\u2019s strength is that every account is unique and different. We offer a type of customization that other 3PLs just don\u2019t. We do so much more that just pick, pack, and ship.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What an Account Manager Can Do for You\u00a0<\/b><\/h2>\n

At DCL, we maintain a 4-to-1 Customer-to-Account Manager ratio with the Account Manager as the primary point of contact. Lori explains, \u201cI have a weekly call with each of my accounts. We also hold quarterly business reviews to make sure we\u2019re all on track. It\u2019s fun to see their growth over time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

DCL Account Managers become an integral part of the teams they support. Lori recounts, \u201cI get lots of requests like \u2018Can you send me a picture of this product?\u2019 or \u2018Can you go look and tell me how this came in?\u2019 My response is always \u2018Of course!\u2019 So I\u2019ll walk to the fulfillment facility, check it all out and get back to my account. The first few orders that ship for any of my accounts, I\u2019m there to sign off on first articles, and first ship.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

How to be a Success\u2014Steps to Becoming a DCL New Account<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Once a new account is closed, an account manager, like Lori will take the account through the following steps.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Integration<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

The most important step to get right, is integration. Weekly meetings are scheduled run consistently for approximately six to eight weeks; these are to figure out all of the business requirements. Lori says, \u201cThe account manager is involved in every one of those meetings, because we have a lot to cover: setting up the part numbers, setting up the rules, figuring out how the company will ship, what they are going to ship in, informing them of how their product needs to arrive to us, how it needs to be packaged, setting up all the documentation that goes along with shipping customer items\u2014we cover everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Internal Hand-off Meeting\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

The step after integration is a meeting to brief all the departments who will work on that account to sync on the business requirements established during integration.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lori says, \u201cAt DCL the account manager and the Head of IT Integration bring all the team members together to get the full download on the account\u2019s needs, products, and how the account will run. The business rules are set up by then\u2014everything from accounting to their inventory, to their distribution, to RMA, to every aspect of what we do for the customer. We make sure everyone is on the same page and that those rules are always kept current, so that if somebody taking over, or somebody is covering me, or somebody comes on new, has a place to locate the rules specific to that customer.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The First Six Months<\/span><\/h3>\n

After integration and set-up, then the first six months are usually categorized by lots of communication, lots of questions, and also corrective action. Lori says, \u201cI have to be available, I have to respond quickly, I have to teach, I have to point my new accounts to where to learn webinars in <\/span>eFactory<\/span><\/a><\/span>, video conferences to teach them eFactory, we try to cover most of all of that during integration, but there are always some things that come up after we have integrated, that we need to address.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ongoing Management and Additional Launches<\/span>\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

After around six months, most questions have been answered about any initial setup. Lori says, \u201cIf I don\u2019t hear from my accounts after the six month mark, that\u2019s pretty good. Usually then it\u2019s just identifying and addressing issues that come up periodically\u2014or special cases like promotions and new products.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the other things that might come up after an account has become established include:<\/span><\/p>\n