NU SKIN REACHING OUT TO DISTRIBUTORS

       The US-based direct-selling giant, Nu Skin, has launched a regional project in Southeast Asia to support and strengthen its relationships with 100,000 distributors in the region.
       The project, called "Hug Our Distributors" is Nu Skin's crucial preparation for a campaign to double its direct-selling business and number of distributors in Thailand and other markets in Southeast Asia within the next one or two years.
       "Under the campaign, a set of projects and initiatives will be launched to help improve customer service for our distributors," said Melisa Quijano, president of Nu Skin Enterprises, Southeast Asia, in an exclusive interview with The Nation.
       "We are a people business and need to be more conscious about service, which is a very important factor in our direct-selling business. Our success depends on the success of our distributors. We want to keep a strategy to make sure our employees are ready and equipped to serve our distributors very well," she said.
       Nu Skin actually started a mindset campaign, called "We Love Our Distributors", last year. The "Hug Our Distributors" project was launched in Thailand and other markets in Southeast Asia earlier this year.
       "The mindset campaign is set to remind us that our purpose is to help distributors to become successful," said Quijano.
       "It recognises our thinking that the distributors are the centre of our business. Therefore our main job is to help them become successful," she added.
       Quijano said that under the "Hug Our Distributors" project, the company would launch programmes and initiatives that enforced the mindset, which would start with training all Nu Skin staff on how they should serve distributors and creating an environment so that distributors would be more effective in what they do.
       The programmes will also include awards and recognition to be provided to distributors.
       "We are looking at value systems and processes that will improve the way we serve our distributors. It will be easy for them to place orders. And we will remove all barriers to our distributors in signing in and sponsoring," said Quijano.
       "When we are able to build trust between the company and our distributors, the relationship will be even stronger. If we serve our distributors well, they will stay active with us. They will enjoy more productivity and bring more people into the business.
       "We ourselves want to provide good and consistent services to our distributors," she added. Nu Skin currently operates in six markets in Southeast Asia and has about 100,000 active distributors totally. In Thailand, the company has 30,000 active distributors.
       "Our 'Hug Our Distributors' programme also affects hiring employees. We hire new personnel for their attitude and train them for skills. They need to be friendly and service-minded," said Quijano.
       She added that the company has a set of behavioural questions to help measure the attitudes of job applicants.
       Quijano said that such initiatives created to serve distributors include "101 Ways to Wow Distributors", designed to teach how to greet distributors, and "Customer Recovering", created to provide several steps in addressing and correcting distributors problems leave them feeling happy.
       The company in July also launched a new measuring system for its distributors called the "Vote System" aimed at finding out the satisfaction level of its distributors.
       "We will do a distributor survey in the near future to find out their satisfaction levels. We want to be known as a company that know how to really take care our distributors," said Quijano.
       Nu Skin achieved 14 per cent year-on-year growth in the first eight months of this year. The company expected to achieve Bt2 billion in sales this year, which is up between 10 per cent and 15 per cent over last year.
       Quijano said that the company posted 14-per-cent growth in sales in the Southeast Asia region in the first eight months of this year compared to the same period last year. The company achieved growth at 18 per cent year on year in the second quarter this year.