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In our series “Yexpert Stories”: Jeffrey Wupkes, Sales Manager. Where did he notice the impact of the corona crisis and what does he expect from the important month of December?
At the beginning of the corona crisis, it took some getting used to consulting digitally with customers. This was something we weren’t used to, we mainly saw each other at trade fairs and at customer visits. But when all of that was suddenly no longer possible, we had to look for each other online. By now, this is running smoothly. We have gotten more and more used to it and I notice that the contact with certain customers has become more intensive. Planning a physical visit was sometimes quite difficult with our full agendas. Now that customers notice how easy it is to organise an online meeting, they often ask us to schedule a consultation hour. No problem, right? I certainly expect that we will continue to use this way of keeping in touch. On the other hand, digital consultation will never completely replace a physical customer visit. We want customers to smell, feel and taste our products. Nothing beats a face-to-face meeting, after all.
Just like other companies, we at Yex work from home as much as possible. In the beginning I found it quite exciting, but I have gotten used to it by now. Using Teams, e-mail, whatsapp and simply phone calls, we keep in touch with each other and everything runs smoothly. Also when it comes to working from home, I expect things to stay partly the same. We have discovered that it is possible and is sometimes very efficient. This does not change the fact that I am really looking forward to being able to return to the office without all kinds of extra measures.
We will soon receive the results of our customer satisfaction survey. We held a similar survey two years ago and recently repeated it. I am curious about the opinion of our customers. It is really valuable to hear what we can improve further. Customers can rest assured that those research results will not disappear in a drawer somewhere. We will definitely work on it!
The pomelo season is currently in full swing at Yex. Our pomelos have been given a new, sustainable look. The new packaging is fully recyclable and requires 50% less plastic. A great result that we are very proud of. This wouldn’t have been possible without our good relationships with our suppliers. Taking steps together with our partners, that makes me really happy. Incidentally, I expect that the interest in pomelo will increase considerably in the coming years. It is still a relatively unknown product for the Dutch consumer. In German-speaking countries and Scandinavia, the pomelo is already a standard product on the shelves. We are not that far here yet, but that is where we want to go to.
How the market will develop in the coming months is quite uncertain due to corona. A few weeks ago we started mapping out the Christmas period and making agreements with suppliers and customers. But what this December month will look like depends to a large extent on the developments surrounding corona. If the hospitality industry remains closed during the holidays, this will certainly have consequences for consumer behaviour. Then we will all celebrate and dine at home, and the exotics are perfect for such an occasion. Exciting times, but let’s hope we get Corona under control soon!