was 1 meter tall and weighed 25 kg. A Chinese customer filed a claim that
the product didn't work and was "junk and all bad". The product manager
had never had any complaints about this product from other markets, so he
decided to visit the customer site, where the product was installed.
meter in order to service it. This is a big challenge for Asians, who tend to
be smaller than Caucasians. Therefore, the product was often accidentally
dropped on the floor and damaged. The engineering department at HQ in
Denmark had been blind to this situation at the market, since they didn't
have an Asian customer in mind when designing the product.
responded that the customer just needed to use the right tools for lifting and
servicing the product. Once again, HQ was blind to the market. The product
manager knew from his visit at the customer sites that Chinese repair shops
are not as well equipped with tools as Western sites.
Chinese remain. One important difference is that Danes are used to being quite
outspoken, even if this means criticizing others. A Danish customer being interviewed
will typically tell his or her honest opinion, while the Chinese in general "never say
no". The Chinese will not confront a superior, in this case the interviewer, directly and
initiate disharmony. This needs to be taken into account in the technique used for the
interview. Questions prepared for Danish customers and simply translated to interview
Chinese customers will not likely result in reliable answers. Worst case, the interview
session may seem to be a success with answers to all questions, but the answers may
have been given just to please the interviewer.
tant. Nice clothes, a big car, an impressive façade
on the house, paying the bills at restaurants
even if you can't really afford it.
can actually be valuable to passively observe them in situations, where the custom-
ers use the offerings of the company. It's not always necessary to talk to Chinese
customers in order to find valuable information about their specific needs.