Cultivating customer relationships

Cultivating customer relationships

As one of the largest agricultural, machinery and livestock exhibitions in the country, Grain SA’s Nampo Harvest Day provides an ideal platform for Mercedes-Benz South Africa (MBSA) to meet new customers and get closer to existing ones. CLAIRE RENCKEN finds out what the company has planned for Nampo 2014

 

Clinton Savage, head of Mercedes-Benz Trucks, explains: “It is all about customer relationships! It is also an ideal opportunity to showcase our new and exciting products, backed up by our superb value-chain offerings.”

MBSA has been an active sponsor of Nampo since its inception. “Our commitment and dedication is based on our belief that the agricultural industry represents a critically important segment of the market for us,” adds Savage.

The exhibition has evolved over the years into one of the largest agricultural shows in the southern hemisphere. “The exposure that MBSA receives is phenomenal and it also gives us an opportunity to continuously learn more about the agricultural industry, our customers and their unique transportation requirements,” he explains.

“Nampo has always resulted in great opportunities and successes for MBSA. Most of the manufacturers, including ourselves, invite many customers from around the country to experience the show. The opportunity to meet with such a large number of customers and potential customers, over the duration of the show, and share what we do with them, only comes around a few times a year,” he continues.

MBSA received great exposure at Nampo in 2013 and intends to make the most of the opportunity again this year.MBSA will most definitely be making the most of this event once again this year: “We are hoping to highlight our innovative product line-up and value-chain offerings by making sure that our offers, messaging and products speak to ‘Reduced Total Cost of Ownership’ and ‘Increased Uptime’.

“Furthermore, we want to show off a few innovations by displaying the Mercedes-Benz Actros 1851, which, at the moment, is not yet available to the South African market. Nampo 2014 is the platform where we want to show our customers what we mean when we talk about Mercedes-Benz Trucks’s ‘Value Chain’, ‘Total Mobility’, and ‘Trucks You Can Trust’,” Savage elaborates.

“We also want to continue to build on the good work that we have done in previous years at Nampo. Building customer relationships and getting to understand what we would need to do to further improve on our offering, is critically important in ensuring that we continue to offer complete vehicle and transport solutions for our customers’ businesses.”

Mercedes-Benz Trucks will showcase CharterWay products powered by Telligent Maintenance for all Actros models. “Telligent Maintenance basically allows the vehicle to determine its own service intervals, resulting in extended service intervals, greater vehicle availability and reduced service costs, which will be reflected in our rates. Telligent Maintenance takes the next step in delivering the promise of ‘Trucks you can Trust’,” he adds.

“This claim speaks to product reliability, innovation, and enhanced customer engagement through our tailor-made solutions. ‘Trucks You Can Trust’ is not a claim or an ambiguous statement for us – it is our way of life and it is embedded in the way we do business with our customers, our dealers and our public,” concludes Savage.

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Focus on Transport

FOCUS on Transport and Logistics is the oldest and most respected transport and logistics publication in southern Africa.
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