What Is the Importance of Customer Service in Manufacturing?

In the retail, restaurant, and hospitality industries, the proper treatment of customers is essential to a brand’s success. Customers expect a courteous interaction and fast solutions to their problems. But even in the manufacturing industry, where companies often focus more on the production side of their operations, customer service now plays a larger part in how your business fares.

Let’s take a closer look at the importance of customer service in manufacturing and how your business can improve its customer service.

Why is Customer Service Important for Manufacturing Businesses?

Customer service is critical in the manufacturing sector because it demonstrates how much you respect your clients. Manufacturers frequently produce items identical to those offered by their competitors, so customer service is a great way to differentiate your brand.

Your relationship with customers is often the deciding factor in whether they’ll keep doing business with you or not. In fact, 89 percent of companies—including manufacturers—compete solely on the quality of their customer service.

And with 81 percent of customers also willing to share bad experiences with others, customer service can also make or break your manufacturing business’s reputation. Thanks to the internet, customers can post about their experience with your business on their blog or social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Just one negative incident can spread online and drive potential clients away.

Check out the other reasons why customer service should matter to manufacturers:

1. Customer Retention

Growing your customer base can be up to 25 times costlier than if you work on retaining your current one. With existing customers, you don’t have to spend as much on marketing campaigns. Instead, you can nurture your relationship through quality customer service until they become repeat customers.

2. Free Promotion

Just as a disgruntled customer will share bad experiences, a satisfied client is more likely to recommend your business if they have positive customer experiences. Word-of-mouth communications allow you to acquire new clients without exerting extra effort in marketing.

3. Increased Revenue

Because good customer service helps you keep current customers and gain new ones, you also boost your sales and potentially earn a larger profit. You’d have more capital for investing in your manufacturing operations.

Customer Service Tips for Your Manufacturing Company

So, how can your manufacturing business improve its customer service? Here are some pointers to help you get started:

Respond to Calls or Messages Quickly

Customers don’t want to wait too long on the phone or when making inquiries online. On average, they’ll hang up after two minutes, and a third of them won’t bother calling again. With emails, most customers won’t wait more than one to two days for a response, while someone on live chat will only wait for around three minutes.

Reducing this wait time, such as by adding more support team members or using tools for quickly rerouting calls to available agents, keeps customers happy. You’ll also be able to cater to more customer inquiries since you can finish each interaction faster.

Collect Customer Feedback

During each interaction with clients, the customer service team can gather data from them, such as:

• What are the most common product problems that clients encounter?
• Are they mostly satisfied with the product?
• What kind of improvements or upgrades do they want in future products?

Such information can help your team develop more streamlined responses instead of scrambling for answers during each call, email, or live chat. You’d then be able to address your clients’ needs much faster. You can also use the feedback to manufacture better products in the future and avoid such problems from occurring again.

Consider Outsourcing Your Customer Services

If you can’t currently expand or invest in an in-house customer service team, you could outsource the work to a third party like ROI Call Center Solutions. These groups already have trained agents and are equipped with the tools and software to gather customer data and quickly assist with all kinds of inquiries.

You may want them to handle common inquiries. If they encounter a problem that requires an in-house expert, they can direct the client to your business.

Outsourcing saves you the time, money, and effort of hiring, training, and paying for the salaries of new employees. You also won’t need to invest in a call center, chat, or email tools and programs.

Customer Service is Worth the Investment

Now that you’ve learned about the importance of customer service in the manufacturing industry, your business can now adapt to meet your customers’ needs better. Besides improving your relationship with existing customers, you’ll build a positive reputation with your target audience and generate more revenue. And with the help of an experienced customer service team, you could take your enterprise to the next level.