Located in China, the world’s largest vacuum manufacturer, Kingclean Corporation, secured a large order with Wal-Mart in the United States. The order consisted of 560,000 vacuums to be sold on promotion during one of the busiest shopping days of the year in America – Thanksgiving Weekend. One of the conditions of the order was that Kingclean was required to provide complete after-sales support of the product including, a U.S. toll-free number for troubleshooting and customer service, and a 1-year product exchange and replacement parts program.
The manufacturer had no call center, fulfillment facilities, or product experts in North America, and had no idea where to begin. The manufacturer did not have the time or money to create an after-sales program from the ground up. Yet, they could not afford to risk the loss of this very important business opportunity.