In the post service market operation system, an important issue that affects customer satisfaction is the shortage of accessories. Contrary to many people's understanding, shortage is not caused by insufficient inventory. Shortage and excess often occur simultaneously, just like twin brothers. Companies with common shortage situations often have severe inventory surplus.
In fact, this is easy to understand. Every enterprise has limited funds, and when funds are occupied by useless excess inventory, the enterprise lacks funds to purchase useful turnover inventory.
The fundamental reason is that many companies do not even know which parts should be stored and which parts should not be stored. Only when inventory accumulates, do they know that these inventory are invalid inventory. Unfortunately, it is already too late and they do not know how to do a good inventory plan, which will inevitably lead to this result. Friends interested in this issue can refer to the author's new book 'Beware of Inventory Mismatch Traps'.
Many companies have serious surplus problems in their parts warehouses, with some inventory lacking turnover for years, resulting in a risk of obsolescence; At the same time, there is also a shortage of parts that customers urgently need, which often leads to equipment shutdown and waiting, causing serious customer dissatisfaction and even affecting customer reputation, corporate brand, and sales of new equipment. Unfortunately, many companies' solution to the shortage problem is to increase inventory, which invisibly leads to further deterioration of the surplus problem. The shortage problem has not improved, resulting in customer loss.
To truly solve these problems, it is necessary to analyze inventory issues and improve management in a targeted manner. Some issues are related to inventory planning, while others are related to warehouse management, such as displaying inventory in the system but not on the shelves. Some are also supply chain issues, with long lead times, chaotic prices, and sometimes insufficient personnel leading to customer loss, such as inability to receive help to confirm parts, long waiting times, and lack of employee training.
Analyze the reasons for customer churn of accessories
The reasons for customer churn of accessories can be divided into the following categories:
-Accessories out of stock
·Insufficient inventory plan leads to stockouts
·Although the accessories are in stock, the quantity is insufficient
·Low replenishment efficiency
·Long delivery time of suppliers
·Accessories on the road
·The system shows that there is stock, but it is not on the shelf
-Accessory prices
·The quotation does not match the system price, and the price review process takes too long
·The quotation time for accessories is too long
·The price of accessories lacks market competitiveness
·The price adjustment cycle is too long
·Accessories promotion, but the system still maintains the original price
-Accessory confirmation
·The part number does not match the product, and the customer cannot use it
·The customer is unable to receive assistance from employees to confirm the accessories
·Employees lack training and are unable to provide professional assistance
-Other reasons
The economic situation is difficult, making it increasingly difficult for customers to purchase accessories at the original price. There are still so many competitors eyeing the market, let's face it! Enterprises must first ensure stock availability and provide the best service support to customers in order to retain them. When a customer prepares to purchase accessories from you but leaves disappointed, you lose the whole world. So, companies must identify the reasons for customer churn, improve internal management and processes to address these issues, and ultimately retain customers.
Analyze the reasons for excess inventory
Similarly, the reasons for excess inventory can be classified into the following categories:
·Inventory planning error
·Lack of inventory planning software
·Lack of professional talent in inventory planning
·Product exits the market
·Reduced equipment running time
·The price of accessories is too high
·Incorrect initial inventory
·Return of consignment inventory
·Accumulation caused by historical reasons
·Other reasons
Enterprises can regularly hold inventory improvement analysis meetings to analyze the out of stock or excess parts of the top 100 SKUs one by one, identify the reasons and solutions. Make progress every day, and one day we will reach our destination. The important thing is to let our employees and customers see our progress.
Improvement actions for inventory issues
The improvement actions taken by enterprises to address inventory issues include the following aspects:
·Improve internal processes
·Internal data/system issues
·Improve personnel issues
·Optimize suppliers
·Addressing theft issues
·Regular inventory scrapping
·Other issues
It is possible to create a matrix of phenomena, causes, and solutions, and invite personnel from relevant departments to attend each inventory improvement meeting. Analyze the content of the matrix item by item, implement the progress of the solutions, remove the solved problems, and put the newly emerged problems into the matrix. In this way, the enterprise will become better and win more customers and markets.
If you don't do anything, inventory issues won't disappear automatically, but customers will become fewer and fewer.
