Does Your Supplier Have a Dedicated Account Manager?

Suddath’s unique approach delivers high customer value

With Suddath^® as your company mover, you have a dedicated account manager sharing knowledge, adding value, and earning the right to be a trusted partner.

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”
Henry Ford

Ford’s innovative, entrepreneurial spirit and creative approaches to problem-solving have been keeping us moving forward for well over a century now. At Suddath, our dedicated account managers bring their own blend of industry expertise, proactive solutions and positivity to keep you and your businesses moving forward. Together, we find greater levels of success.

At Suddath, every client has their own account manager. It’s a unique approach that results in several significant advantages:

You gain a trusted partner to keep you up to date and in the know

“I wish there was more content on the internet,” said no one, ever. What we DO want is high-quality, valuable, and relevant information. But how do you find the time to sift through it all and know what’s trustworthy? Enter your dedicated account manager, who takes the time to fully know and understand your business, your moving needs and what information will be most applicable to you and your employee moves.

According to an article in the BBC’s Science Focus magazine, it’s estimated that all four of the biggest online storage and service companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Facebook store at least 1,200 petabytes of data between them. What’s a petabyte, you ask? 1.2 million terabytes, and one terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes. Translation? A heck of a lot of information is flowing across the wires every day.

Our account managers bring their knowledge and expertise to you and your team, so you don’t have to spend your time digesting all those bytes. They belong to professional associations, engage in ongoing training and certification programs and monitor news and industry resources to stay on top of all the latest developments, laws, regulations, and market trends.

“We share information and analysis with our clients in several different ways,” notes Teela Gleason, CRP, GMS-T, Senior Vice President, Client Services at Suddath. The frequency will depend on the urgency of the information, of course, as well as a client’s individual communication preferences. We send periodic synopses of articles, whitepapers or educational sessions we feel will add value to or make their jobs easier. We conduct business reviews on at least a quarterly basis. A portion of those meetings is always dedicated to engaging in thought leadership exchanges and discussing relevant trends. Sometimes, the conversations center around a particular challenge a client may be having, other times they are focused on broader moving industry developments, and many times, it’s a combination of the two.”

Corporate moving is likely to be just one of many areas of responsibility you oversee. Having a dedicated account manager gives you a go-to industry expert on your own team.

“The average tenure of our account managers is 15 years of industry experience,” shares Gleason. “We’re all active in regional relocation groups, with many of us holding leadership positions. We have earned the Global Mobility Specialist (GMS) and Certified Relocation Professional (CRP) designations from Worldwide ERC. While most in-person events are temporarily on hold, we’re still very engaged in virtual learning opportunities and aim to attend at least one non-relocation or moving related conference or educational program a year to get inspiration, ideas and new learnings from other business sectors, too” adds Gleason.

You benefit from the practical applications of all that industry expertise

All that knowledge and industry experience is impressive, but what does it mean in practice? Account managers help you continually benchmark your program with data and critical insights to measure and improve performance, or identify areas where you can make a few changes to realize greater cost efficiencies. For example, one of our oil and gas industry clients was experiencing a single, overwhelming traffic lane with a high number of very small shipments. Recognizing an opportunity, our team proposed an alternative shipping model that demonstrated cost savings and faster delivery times. By employing a containerization model, the client quickly saw better, faster results and happier employees.

Another client from the high-tech industry was engaged in a group move of 300 people to Ireland over a 3-week period. Our account managers analyzed the customs clearance times and reviewed all options available to increase speed. We were able to illustrate that routing through Belfast and trucking to the destination was faster and more efficient than using Dublin as the port of entry, with minimal impact on the overall costs. The adjustment helped the client meet their production needs and the project stayed on schedule.

To further demonstrate the ways account management expertise can add value to your business, we recently worked with a manufacturing industry sector client whose policies featured a miscellaneous spend threshold, varied by tier. They established it to address the costs that fell outside of the policy parameters, and to eliminate the number of policy exception requests. Suddath built a tracking mechanism to identify which services were most frequently used and the total spend. By showing them the data, we were able to help them design a new core/flex policy to better channel the right levels of funds into the most desirable services.

An advocate on your side

The events of 2020 have had devastating impacts on just about every business sector. Our account managers worked with clients to help them make proactive decisions to quickly get their teams safely moved. We use several enhanced health and safety protocols to keep employees moving – minimizing contact and keeping clients fully up to date on changing domestic and international requirements.

“We recently relocated an externally hired senior executive. Knowing that she had begun the role and could not be home during the pack and load yet had a spouse and several kids back home, we chose Suddath’s unique project management service to help reduce the stress level and allow our employee to better focus on business-critical issues during the transition. It gave the family much-needed support and peace of mind.”

Eric Baum, Senior Manager, Adidas

Even under the best of circumstances, we know that there are inevitably times when things can and do go wrong when people are on the move. Our account managers bring a blend of critical thinking, creative problem solving, project management skills and empathy to their roles, acting as internal advocates to make sure that the appropriate resources and attention are given to the success of your corporate moving program.

For example, one of our team members was onsite at an origin location for a C-Suite-level move that involved two full trailer loads. The move called for split deliveries, across several destinations. Upon realizing that several large furniture items did not arrive at the first delivery location, the account manager flew 1,800 miles to the storage warehouse, identified the items that were inadvertently placed there and immediately had them re-routed to the proper location. The individual’s full knowledge of the job requirements at the origin location, understanding of the company culture and trusted relationship with the transferee turned a potentially negative situation into a positive one.

All that and a bit of fun

Relationship-building is about more than just business. Our account managers are regarded as an integral part of the client teams they support. The implementation and onboarding process is designed to ensure a complete understanding of company culture – yours and ours – with virtual training sessions and when possible, in-person visits to have a first-hand look at company facilities and culture in action. Each company is unique, with its own internal processes, frequently used terms and priorities. We learn to speak your language.

Suddath hosts several roundtables and webinars to cover hot topics in the industry and keep you connected not only to knowledge resources, but to your industry peers. We typically hold an annual 3-day client summit, featuring speakers and sessions that deliver some of the more complex topics in ways that make them a bit more fun and easier to learn and retain. In the evenings, we provide plenty of opportunities to meet and network with other industry peers.

Frequently operating across the HR, operations, IT, finance and customer service functions of the business, account managers are uniquely positioned to be a single point of accountability, helping create better lines of open, cross-functional communication and understanding for your business. When it comes to moving forward together, our account managers are 100% dedicated to your – and your moving employees’ – success.

Does your current supplier feel like a partner? Find out if they invest in a dedicated account management department within their organization who allocate resources to maintaining relationships and support of current clients. This vital resource is often overlooked, and the tradeoff can be felt by HR and/or mobility program managers. Suddath realizes the value in a proper account management department and we are ready to work for you. Want to know more? Please contact us today.