Introduction

You are a 20-year veteran in the manufacturing industry. You have always counted on good tools and reliable technology as contributors to your success. And you have saved a lot of money and time ignoring fancy tools, silver bullets and bright, shiny objects. But have you noticed things are starting to slip.

Your concern is valid, but the problem isn’t your fault. Your success came from your focus on providing value to clients and your discipline in ignoring useless technology people have tried to sell you. But consider life without a copy machine or phone; some new technologies are here to stay and provide real value. Today there are a few simple systems that manufacturers benefit from and it’s worth your time to embrace.

Embrace the DIY’ers!

Your manufacturing business faces the big challenge of meeting customers’ escalating expectations for instant accessibility and efficiency. Your clients crave seamless access to data, quicker interactions, and more control over their engagement with your company. They want to do it themselves! The stats are in:

• Over 67% of customers prefer using a form of self-service rather than talking to a customer service representative
• As many as 73% prefer using the company’s website exclusively instead of social media, SMS, or live chat apps for support.

You can make that happen with a game-changing self-service system that grants customers:

• Lightning-fast, Instant information at a glance
• Anytime, anywhere accessibility

The system is secure and managed by you, guaranteeing data integrity and client confidentiality.

Here’s an example:

Roy called me, “I need help. Things are falling through the cracks; customers are wanting answers and I’m losing money on some contracts.” Roy had built a successful business, doing things the same way for 15 years, but it wasn’t working as well anymore.

Roy explained, “Where a contract is located is a stressful guessing game – is it on someone’s laptop, or maybe it’s the fileserver or is it still attached to an email?” Roy’s partner Mark mentioned, “When customers call with questions it could be hours of waiting before the answers are found. Clients aren’t happy about response times.”

I told Roy, “You need a self-service system that will seamlessly connect you with your 5 major clients.” Roy wanted to improve and said “Yes”; the results were amazing. Roy and Mark watched customers access information themselves. Mark stated, “Because contracts are better organized, and clients can access what they need, our email and phone calls related to contracts were reduced by 80%!” They also mentioned, “It is reducing the administrative workload for our clients as well.”

Roy and Mark are back to winning and reaped a remarkable $24,960 in savings that year by introducing Self-Service.

Setting up this revolutionary system eliminated a headache. It takes a mere 16 hours of planning and prep, a small investment for a huge payoff in time, money and customer satisfaction.

How To Ignore Your Phone and Email

Don’t you hate it when your customers ask you these questions?

• “What’s the status of my order?”
• “How do I return this?”

These questions drive you crazy because they take up your precious time and interrupt your workflow. Taking you away from the important stuff, leaving you swamped with mundane tasks. Because they can hinder your customers’ overall experience, they can also make your customers unhappy and less loyal.

But what if you could get rid of these questions forever? That’s what our solution does for you! It sends automatic notifications and uses online forms to keep your customers in the loop about their order, repair or return. These features:

• Make your customers feel valued and informed
• Eliminate annoying customer phone calls and emails for good
• Skyrocket client satisfaction
• Free up your time for more important tasks

You might be worried that reducing the call volume will make you lose connection with your customers. But the truth is, your customers don’t want to bother you with trivial matters. They’d rather enjoy the value you provide and engage with you in meaningful ways. Research shows, more than 85% of customers want to experience proactive communication and contact from a business. Which means automatically sending them updates and information. Some even prefer no personal interaction, like people who happily pay more to complete mortgage transactions online.

Don’t just take our word for it. Listen to success stories from our client:

Andy, the Customer Service manager of an existing client met with me, “Joe, we handle 200 repairs a week and my team is overwhelmed with phone calls and emails from customers. We like to have regular contact with our customers, but my team is overwhelmed by all the updating, instructing and conversing. We keep going because we don’t want to lose contact with our clients; we know silence is deadly.” “Some of the customers are angry or frustrated having to waste time to call and ask about the status of their repair. They are used to Amazon updating them effortlessly.”, he said.

“Have you considered providing information and status updates automatically? We can also provide a simple online form that auto-requests any needed info.”, I suggested. “I was thinking about that same thing, but don’t want to lose touch with clients.”, he responded. “Andy, these days people expect information without having to talk with someone, in many cases they prefer it.”, I said.

I followed up after the system was built and implemented and asked, “How are the phone calls going?” “What phone calls, we hardly get them anymore. We saw a staggering 40% drop in emails and phone calls related to repairs. This allows us to trim their Customer Service team from 4 to 3 people, saving a whopping $60,000 annually. Plus, the customers are happier and more loyal; they are sticking around for the long run because it’s easier to get repairs.”

Andy and his team saved precious time, money and stress.

Getting started with our solution is a breeze with our help. We collaborate for just 8 hours to tailor notifications and communication strategies to your unique needs. After that, we take the reins, leaving you to relish the rewards.

So, if you’re ready to reclaim your time, elevate customer satisfaction, and level up your operations, consider taking our solution for a spin. It’s not about dodging customer inquiries—it’s about responding more efficiently and crafting a seamless, customer-centered experience. In this era of business, success lies in the art of maintaining equilibrium between customer engagement and operational prowess.

You Are Not a Mind Reader!

Imagine this: You find yourself in a situation where you’re flying blind when it comes to understanding your customers’ needs. The absence of a feedback loop leaves you in the dark, causing a dip in client happiness, loyalty, and referrals. You’re essentially playing a guessing game as you strive to enhance your services. All this uncertainty nibbles away at your confidence.

So how can you know what your customer wants? You ask them, of course! But asking for feedback must be easy, otherwise your team won’t bother to ask for it and your customers won’t respond.

That’s why you need a smart way to gather feedback, one that automates requests, uses online forms and leverages a user-friendly dashboard. The best part? You can accomplish all this using tools you already have at your disposal. Trust me, it’s the most straightforward and effective path to gather valuable insights and refine your business.

Consider these statistics:

• 77% of consumers view brands more favorably if they seek out and apply customer feedback
• 97% of clients will become more loyal if they see the company took their feedback seriously

Let me share my own experience. After completing a large project, it wasn’t clear what the client thought of us and our work. Fortunately, we collected feedback from the key people at the client. They shared the reasons they chose us for the project. What they liked about our work… and what we could improve. Many of their comments reinforced our culture and approach. And we implemented their improvement idea. That change saved us $2,400 in labor with the next client and has become part of our normal process, saving us money with every subsequent project.

Now, you might be thinking that this process sounds time-consuming and challenging. But here’s the good news—it only takes 16 hours, spread over a few days, to decipher the type of feedback you need and which metrics to focus on. Once that’s sorted, we step in and handle all the heavy lifting, delivering a tailor-made solution right to your doorstep.

In conclusion, unlocking the power of a smart feedback loop is the key to not only understanding your customers better but also to enhancing your business. Don’t let the fear of complexity hold you back. With the right approach and tools, you can effortlessly gather feedback, improve your services, and boost customer satisfaction. So, why wait? It’s time to embark on a journey of continuous improvement, one that will undoubtedly steer your business toward success.

3 Customer Service Levers Lifting Your Business to New Heights

Doing the above 3 changes will take you to a new place. These are effective and reliable systems smart companies use, and systems we implement successfully. The 3 changes allow you to still stick with your proven formula of less is more, continue ignoring silver bullets and bright shiny toys, but it also allows you to start winning again.

Ready for more? Read these 3 questions and send me an email with the answers. We can have a 15-minute call to point you in a new direction.

1. If you are sending files to clients or they are sending files to you:
   1. What is the nature of those files?
   2. What kind of interaction do either of you have with these files?
2. What repetitive phone calls or emails are your team regularly doing; same content, just the job #, customer name, status, etc. changes?
3. What question are you afraid to ask your client at the end of a project or purchase?

Finally, as you were reading this you may have thought of a friend or someone in your network that would find it useful, please share it with them – I’d really appreciate it!