Why is it that so much effort goes into selecting a platform vendor for an e-commerce website, yet often so little into maintaining the partnership and ensuring service delivery is to the highest standards? This blog looks at five common errors that I've seen made frequently by e-commerce teams, usually down to lack of commercial experience in managing complex partnerships.
The financial viability of a platform depends to a great extent on the e-commerce team's continued focus on delivering value for money.
This month I'm looking at five key pressure points in Client/Agency relationships that can adversely affect value outputs, considering how they come about and how Heads of e-commerce can relieve the pressure using proven relationship management techniques.
In some e-commerce projects not enough time is taken to define and agree support & hosting SLAs.
SLAs set expectations and frame the partnership, so put the right focus into this part of the project planning to protect your business in the future.
Mistakes happen but if you're on the ball, your Account Manager will know they need to up their game and ensure a consistent quality of delivery.
Losing focus on Account Management support when work is manic The relationship between the e-commerce manager and the account manager is sacrosanct.
Make sure your Account Management service is clearly defined.
Hiding lost revenue in new projects (higher estimations that required, more project management etc) is not unknown.
A good idea is to build relationships with the heads of e-commerce at other clients of the platform vendor.
A good platform provider that is confident in the quality of its services will welcome the interactivity between clients.
This can be invaluable when defining needs for a new project others businesses may already have been through the pain and learned how best to adapt the platform to support the business requirements.
I'd be interested to hear from you and hear what you think are the most important factors for heads of e-commerce to keep front of mind when working with service providers.
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