As kids, we all grew up watching superhero movies and cartoons. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman. They always saved the day, conquered the villain, prevented world destruction, and restored the status quo.
As adults, we’ve ventured out, forged our careers and over time realised that superheroes actually exist in our everyday life.
If you’ve ever been involved in procurement for a company, you’ll know that even with the best laid plans (and sophisticated EDI, eCommerce, or ERP systems), sometimes things go wrong.
If you’ve worked in manufacturing, distribution or retail, perhaps you’ve had situations where you’re waiting on delivery of a business-critical item. It might be a product to complete an urgent order, a missing item on the bill of materials for a kit, or an essential part to repair that conveyor belt and get production back up and running.
When one (or on a bad day all) of the above situations arise, who do you turn to? That’s right - you go straight to your supplier’s Customer Service team in the hopes they can solve the problem, save the day, and restore the status quo.
If you’re lucky, you’ll speak to Andrew, Dani or Zac – heroes in disguise. These guys know all the systems inside and out. They know the shortcuts, the tweaks, and the right people to lean on within their business and supply chain. They solve problems creatively and they get stuff done. They are the unsung heroes who keep satisfaction levels high and create not only loyal customers, but advocates.
So…. I have a question…..
Why, if our Customer Service people are superheroes in our businesses, do we shackle them to low value/non-differentiating, repetitive tasks like order entry?
Travelling the country, I often see Customer Service reps spending up to 70% of their time on order entry. Is this any way to treat a hero? You may as well throw their cape on the ground and stomp all over it…
Stop for a minute and imagine what the quality of our service would be like if we could give our CSRs even 30-40% of their time back by automating sales order entry. By reallocating manual tasks, we’d liberate our Customer Service superheroes, enabling them to create very memorable customer experiences. We’d be known as the supplier who went above and beyond. The supplier who not only had the products, but the top shelf service. We might even discover that price becomes less important when it comes time to renegotiate those customer contract renewals…
Considering that more than 80% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company after having a bad experience*, can we afford NOT to let our Customer Service heroes use their powers for good?
In the next blog, I’ll uncover the ways sales order entry automation can accelerate the supply chain. Subscribe below and we’ll make sure you don’t miss it.