Long-term collaboration leads to lasting benefits

Agreements are a way for customers to ensure that Valmet is there to support them in the longer term, with defined and agreed actions. However, there’s another aspect of working with any customer and that’s collaboration. Collaboration is what actually gets things done. And the longer you work together, the easier collaboration becomes.

In my experience, collaboration extends well beyond any project or agreement. When a customer selects you as their partner, you have already built some trust and some sort of relationship. In the beginning, of course you have to prove yourself. At Valmet, we aim to do things right from the start, clearly defining our responsibilities and delivering everything we promise. And that’s how we continue.

Trust and familiarity

We work on being reliable, because then our customers learn trust us, and the relationship and the collaboration get easier. This goes for team-to-team relationships, too. If our field services team already know the customer’s mill team, from a previous shut-down for example, it’s so much easier for them to work together again. Trust, familiarity and reliability make the work and collaboration smoother and more effective.

  We are always looking for ways to improve and serve our customers even better."

The value of long-term relationships

Longer-term customer relationships are definitely worth cultivating. They make things easier for both parties. Over time, you naturally end up getting to know a customer and their processes, machine and site. The better we understand their operations, the easier it becomes to plan and schedule future work, and to allocate the resources for it. In addition, deeper understanding also lets us take a strategic, long-term view of their needs, enabling us to discuss and suggest upgrades and improvements.

Helping customers develop

In any collaboration, whether it has just started or whether it’s well established, I think it’s good to ask yourself what more you can do to help the customer develop their operations. One good way to approach this is to create a common road map for development. That’s why we talk to our customers to find out what their hopes and concerns are, and agree a way forwards – Valmet definitely has the process and equipment knowhow to help. We can also offer benchmarking surveys to help them identify areas to improve, including efficiency, machine performance, and competitiveness. Giving them a big picture view can really help them see how they can develop their business, and how we can help them do it. And how we can develop the cooperation together.