PlaceMakers support builds loyalty
29 Nov 2023, Community & Sponsorship, News
With a specialist team that speaks Mandarin and Cantonese and has a good understanding of Chinese culture, PlaceMakers has built trust and loyalty with an important segment of the building industry
PlaceMakers has dedicated Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking teams in Auckland, Canterbury and Otago and is a Diamond Sponsor of the New Zealand International Building Expo & Summit (NZIBES).
The event, organised by the New Zealand Chinese Building Industry Association (NZCBIA), has been held in the North Island every year since 2018 and was held in the South Island for the first time in 2023.
This year’s North Island event was hosted at the Due Drop Events Centre in Auckland on 11-12 August. Keven Chen, Head of Asian Business at PlaceMakers, says it was a huge success.
“It attracted 11,000 attendees, which is a significant increase on last year’s attendance of 9,000. The event is a great opportunity for us to connect with builders from the Chinese community and the mainstream sector.
“We had a PlaceMakers Zone with information displays and interactive experiences from a range of suppliers.
“Attendees were able to speak to suppliers in Mandarin, and get a first-hand look at their products, providing them with an excellent opportunity to break into the market segment.”
Suppliers in the PlaceMakers zone included Firth, Milwaukee, Leven & Dryden, Winstone Wallboards, Delfast, Laminex, Complete Reinforcing, Staffy, Oliveri, Mico, Raymore/Adesso, Comfortech and IBS.
Aligning with the expo’s theme ‘Reducing our Carbon Footprint’, PlaceMakers displayed a number of energy efficient products, including the Smarter Framing Series – a framing solution that reduces the amount of timber used in the construction of new homes to achieve a higher R-value.
“As we know, the higher a home’s R-value, the lower the amount of electricity or gas is required to heat it, which leads to more sustainable homes,” said Keven.
The highlight of the event was the gala dinner, which saw PlaceMakers CEO Bruce McEwen present the NZCBIA Excellence Awards in the Construction Residential Construction Category, while PlaceMakers General Manager Operations Shane Cornelius gave a speech about celebrating the long standing partnership between NZCBIA and PlaceMakers, and the continued commitment to the Chinese Building community.
The South Island NZIBES – the first of its kind in the community – was a big success. Held at Christchurch’s Te Pae Convention Centre in early November, it was attended by more than 1,100 visitors and well supported with 18 sponsors and 12 support partners.
Building bridges
Keven points out that PlaceMakers support for the Chinese construction community extends beyond these marquee events – the team plays an active role in helping to make day-to-day business as easy as possible.
On a cultural front, there are a few differences that Keven and his team understand and are only too happy to accommodate.
“A number of our Chinese builders prefer to meet with us in the evening or after work for dinner, rather than at our BBQ trade breakfasts.
“Another key cultural understanding relates to how many Chinese customers prefer to do business – many prefer to use WeChat to communicate and place orders. To accommodate their preference, we set up a PlaceMakers WeChat account for trade support staff to better serve those customers.”
Ease of communication is vital for all parties – and language is no barrier.
“Building trust and loyalty is our priority and we do that by delivering exceptional and targeted services to our customers by the unique structure. From my understanding, we’re the only builders’ merchants who can offer that service throughout our business.”
Dealing with complex matters such as building projects in a second language is difficult, no matter how proficient you are in it, and Keven says there’s a clear sense of relief and trust once customers find out they can speak to someone in their preferred language.
“We’ve had customers specifically come to us because of what we can offer. Not only do we have a dedicated team, we have Mandarin and Cantonese speakers throughout our networks – from dispatch, to yard, to the showroom and in estimation. It doesn’t matter if it’s in internal comms or from the account managers, our customers know it’ll be a smooth process dealing with us.
“A lot of PlaceMakers suppliers don’t have Mandarin or Cantonese speakers, so we can also act as a ‘bridge’ between them and our builders.
“We appreciate that many of these builders prefer to use Mandarin or Cantonese, as they can then express themselves better and can communicate their requirements more effectively.
“Speaking to them in Mandarin or Cantonese cuts down on any miscommunication, which reduces mistakes and builds trust and loyalty.”
Speaking our language
Adam Wang, Quantity Surveyor at Breeze Construction, says that having someone to communicate with in his first language is incredibly helpful.
“About 90% of our communication is in Mandarin and Cantonese, which makes it a more efficient process and results in less time lost to correcting any miscommunications that may occur
as a result of using English.
“Also, we use WeChat for most of our ordering and communication, which is a highly efficient way of doing business, as it cuts down on time spent making phone calls or using email chains.
“We also use it to chat to sales or account managers and can search for messages we’ve sent in the past if we ever need to.”
Adam says having a dedicated PlaceMakers team helps him get orders placed and delivered more quickly, and he enjoys attending events such as the NZIBES and PlaceMakers seminars to learn more about new products.
“The NZIBES is a very valuable event to us in terms of networking and getting the opportunity to talk to suppliers, and we’ve also made the most of training sessions run by PlaceMakers on how to use and install products like Weathertex (a weatherboard product). It makes a big difference having these services available to us.”
Builders looking for support in Mandarin or Cantonese can reach Keven Chen at keven.chen@placemakers.co.nz .
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