Simple (But Powerful) Tips for Wowing Your Customers

Are you ready and prepared to help your customers in their critical time of need – when they have an emergency? In most successful shops, the daily focus is on parts out the door. Keeping up with orders is Job #1, and that’s how it should be. But there’s one, simple extra step you can take that will knock your customers’ socks off if they ever have an emergency and need a part quickly.

Very Simple. Very Powerful.

Superior customer service is a hallmark for many of the shops we work with. This can involve more than on-time delivery, sometimes it’s about going above and beyond the call of duty. Dimension Machine in Cincinnati provides an example of how this is done. When they run parts for their regular customers, they make a few extras and stock them on the shelf. So when a customer calls and needs a part right away, they’re relieved and amazed when they can get it immediately. This also reduces cost, both for the shop and the customer, because there’s no need for time-consuming changeovers. It’s a very simple procedure, and doesn’t cost a lot (although this may not be feasible if you make large or expensive parts). But the wow factor and relationship-building aspect of this is very powerful.

Walking the Talk

Do we “walk this talk” here at Okuma America? What happens when one of our customers needs a part urgently? Our primary goal is to get you the part you need as quickly as possible, while maximizing cost-efficiency. Let’s take a quick look at the systems we have in place:

• Global Stocking and Local Stocking: We manage a balance of parts inventory both locally and globally. For routine items, these are kept on the shelf at your local distributor, who is often just a quick trip away from your location. For slow-moving parts, newly-stocked parts, and non-critical service parts, we can efficiently access our global inventory.
• Existing Machine Service Parts: For existing machines we have the luxury of sales history to use as a forecasting model. Using this we can gauge the number of parts that may be needed per year.
• New Machine Service Parts: We review every item on new machines and make sure we have available: parts with long lead times, wear items, preventive maintenance items (PM), and electrical parts.
• Overall, we maintain a service parts fill rate of 95%.
• Our global inventory investment is $200 million.
• Okuma America carries an inventory value of $60 million: $38 million in Charlotte and $22 million at our distributor locations (Okuma has the largest independently-owned distribution network in the Americas).
• We have several programs in place to suit your needs at any given moment, such as 365 support, Q24 global emergency parts shipping, Constant CARE Remote, and Certified Exchange Parts.

I’ve been in procurement with Okuma for 21 years. If there’s one rallying cry we have, it’s a focus on “having the right part ready.” Our service parts fill rate, inventory levels and cost-efficient systems show it pretty clearly: we work hard to wow you.

What are you doing to go above and beyond for your customers? We welcome you to comment and share your stories below. Or contact us, or your local distributor, if you’d like to learn more about our service programs.

Joe Sides is Procurement Specialist, Okuma America Corporation.