After Sales Activity

Once you’ve made an international sale, you need to consider what happens next. Hopefully you’ll have some very happy customers who will buy from you again but what would happen in the event of a problem or where consumer support might be needed for maintenance, troubleshooting etc.?

Questions to ask yourself:

• How will you deal with international customer enquiries or provide any after-sales support? Will you do this directly from your office or via an agent / distributor / ‘in market’ representative?
• How would you handle a physical product return or recall? You may need a physical address in the EU for example if shipping products to an EU market.
• Are you familiar with regulations about after sales activity in your target market?
• Will you need to put measures in place to support customers in another language?
• How will you continue to engage with your international customers to ensure that future sales are safeguarded?

Next Steps:

• Consider partnering with an ‘in-market’ organisation (a company with a complementary product offer, distributor etc.) to help with you after sales activity.
• Get in touch with the KIB partners who have access to extensive international networks which can be used to connect you to relevant ‘in-market’ contacts.
• Regularly liaise with customers, export agents and banks.
• Monitor political unrest or other adverse conditions in the country of destination to best prepare for any issue that may arise.
• Manage regular servicing and warranty claims.
• Consider creating a partner support pack / dedicated country web page / market specific helpline.