About nuts and bolts and cows and calves.... 

... or in other words: personal contact. At Kobout, this is elevated to a true art: listening and sensing what a customer wants, would want or should want. Therefore, within six months of the first order, every customer has a fixed contact person who fits the person and the sector in which the company concerned operates. Sales manager René van Loon talks about the "magic" of personal contact and what this means for both Kobout and the customer.

Perhaps it's an open door to proclaim that "the customer is central. However, the way suppliers put this into practice is less straightforward. Sure, you can work under the motto, "you ask, we deliver," but that doesn't go nearly far enough for Kobout. "Our three core values are stewardship, service and justice," says Van Loon. "That means that we mold the processes of our core business - supplying high-quality fasteners - ór the processes of the customer. It's very simple: the customer's core business is definitely not about buying fasteners, but without these products he won't get ahead. So our job is to make these processes as simple as possible for him, so that he can focus on his own goals."

Flexible software

Among other things, Kobout translated this into investing in special software with which practically all forms of orders can be digitized and converted into an order. Whether it is an e-mail, a pdf or an order via barcode scanning, Kobout processes it into the correct order. In addition, "specials" are standardized. For example, does a customer want a special barcode, own logo or drawing number on his packaging? Then he simply checks the relevant option when ordering.

The warehouse is also set up and automated in such a way that orders are shipped almost flawlessly and almost always on time. "For us now normal, but when I show visitors around here, it becomes clear to me every time that it is seemingly very special. However, 'Doing what you promise' is an unwritten law for a supplier of consumables as far as I am concerned."

Personal contact

But surely the most "ultimate" is the real personal contact. Van Loon: "When companies order for the first time, we make sure that we understand their processes and bottlenecks as quickly as possible and try to support them in solving them. For example, we also supply special kits tailored to a specific product or project. A kit then contains all fasteners - and sometimes more - for this product. A mechanic then only needs to grab such a kit to complete his work completely and not have to look up and count out all his nuts and bolts himself."

The customer is then paired with a permanent Kobout employee within six months. One with whom it clicks and who has knowledge of the market, because he visits his customers regularly and thus gets to know the specific challenges. "An important aspect of our approach," Van Loon knows. "After all, that contact person gets to know the customer well and can therefore quickly give the right answer for new issues or make suggestions to fill in a latent question. For example, when he hears that a new order for this customer is coming up, he can already stock the necessary fasteners. It sometimes even goes so far that customers indicate that they do not buy from Kobout, but from their contact person. That's how personal this relationship is."