How Service Parts Management Affects Customer Loyalty

When acquiring new customers is 10 times more expensive than retaining an existing customer, customer loyalty is the golden goose for a driven and growing company. Replacing parts for complicated products that might require a repair like appliances and power tools is often a headache to a customer. How your company handles that replacement can make all the difference in keeping or losing that customer forever.

BY THE NUMBERS

Customer loyalty has become more and more important (and competitive) because companies have figured out just how much money they save through retention. What adds up to successful (or failed) customer loyalty, then?

• US consumers are 46% more likely to switch providers than they were 10 years ago (Accenture)
• “Failure to solve a problem in a timely manner” is the top 2 reason for customer loss (Customer Experience Impact Report by Harris Interactive/RightNow, 2010)
• You have a 70% chance of repeat business after a customer complains if you resolve things in their favor (Lee Resources)

These statistics suggest that it’s easy to lose customer loyalty, especially when they experience a problem. Thankfully, you still have a chance at retaining them when you resolve their issue positively and quickly.

THE ROLE OF SERVICE PARTS MANAGEMENT IN THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY

Telling you that the customer journey doesn’t end at checkout would be preaching to the choir. Continued experience with the brand contributes to lifetime value through repeat purchases and positive word of mouth recommendations or reviews. When a customer’s product is in need of a repair or replacement, their experience is in the hands of your customer support and technicians.

Needing a repair or replacement also gives the customer a perfect opportunity to test out your competitors. Quick, accurate and helpful service parts management helps narrow that gap.

SERVICE PARTS MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES

Resolving issues positively and quickly means having streamlined customer service contact and processes in place. But it also means making it easy for customer service employees to do their jobs. Behind the scenes, your service parts management process must run efficiently in order for your employees and technicians to have the tools they need when they need them.

That’s much easier said than done. The biggest challenge lies simply in the breadth of capabilities required for effective service parts management:

• inventory forecasting
• vendor management
• procurement
• order management
• value-added warehousing
• fulfillment

There are numerous possible roadblocks in each step that can affect the whole system. A matter of hours lost in one step can mean the world to your customer. In order to provide the best possible customer service, the process requires a backend that runs like a well-oiled machine.

A SOLUTION FOR SERVICE PARTS MANAGEMENT

Addressing the challenge of seamless service parts management gives you the opportunity to lock in customers for life. A proper strategy connects every step in the process, from customer support’s ability to take returns, to forecasting future service demand, to the physical fulfillment of a part to the field technician. Decreasing the number of links in the chain by consolidating services ensures smoother communication, quicker fulfillment, happier customers and reduced costs.

Where have you found the biggest challenges in product repair and replacement? Reach out to FIDELITONE’s team to talk customer loyalty through service parts management.