A productive afterthought…

I met with the operations director of one of our customers last week to discuss some further enhancements to their system. They are twelve months on from implementing the service capabilities of their CRM system and the first years results are impressive. Operational improvements include:

· A significant up-lift in the billing of out of warranty work
· A higher conversion of warranty renewals
· Improved resolution of calls at first level, reducing the number of calls requiring on site visits
· Reduced costs through less reliance on third party engineers
· Increased efficiency in controlling loan machines reducing the amount of capital held in loan stock
· The more effective distribution of parts to jobs reducing ‘emergency’ courier costs
· Improved customer service through better prioritization of issues and fewer calls falling between the cracks
· More appropriate pricing of warranty contracts to reflect the true cost of servicing the various models the company supports
· Reduced debtor days by adding new credit control procedures
· Fewer major issues involving management intervention
· Improved marketing through the acquisition of better customer data
· Enhanced reporting capabilities which have enabled the company further tune practices to reduce costs, increase revenue, and enhance customer service

Revenues generated through the service department have increased dramatically. The investment in the system has already been repaid multiple times in the first year, and are projected to repay the investment in the technology and our services around twenty times in the first three years of operation.

Interestingly the service area was a little bit of an afterthought having implemented the sales and marketing capabilities a year earlier. The service area already had a system in situ, and it was unclear what sort of improvement could be made. It was only after some speculative initial analysis that we uncovered the true potential for the technology. It all goes to show that some of the biggest pay-back areas aren’t necessarily the obvious ones.

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