The New Year is right around the corner, your gym will be packed the produce section of the grocery store will be busier on January 1. But like many things, people will get back to old habits and routines instead of sticking to a new plan. People are a lot like manufacturers, once they see how sticking to a plan can help their goals, they usually build good habits around it, so why not have a few New Year’s Resolutions for manufacturers?
That’s why it’s time for manufacturers to make their 2020 resolution to take a look at how they do business and find ways to improve their operations and customer experience. Luckily for you, we’ve put together 3 resolutions to change how you do business:
1) Adopt New Technologies for an Increased Profit
The 2020s are here; anything that can help your company gain an advantage is critical. CPQ (Configure, Price, Quote) technology can help streamline operations that can make it easy for you to configure the perfect product for your customers. It’s possible to be ahead of your competition at every turn when a CPQ system is used for manufacturers
Analytics is another great way to improve your operations. Understanding how your customers buy your products, where they come from (website, cold calling, etc) can help you target them. Analytics can also reduce your operating costs during the product life cycle by focusing on inefficient processes.
Visualization is another great way to take your customer experience to the next level. Now more than ever buyers want to see their products in real-time in their environments. So why wouldn’t you give them what they want, after all the customer is always right.
All of these items can help increase your profit margins in different ways, creating a lean manufacturing operation with Analytics or changing how your customer views your products with visualization.
2) Make your employees lives easier
Talent keeps your company moving, innovating and profitable. Your employees are important and keeping them happy is equally as important. A difficult job isn’t going to keep them happy so making their daily processes a little easier will go a long way. With CPQ it’s possible to end the back and forth between your sales and engineering teams because the optimal solution is always delivered fast. Happier employees will lead to better results for not only your sales but your actual products. Offering the best product quickly will put you lightyears ahead of your competition.
3) Be everywhere with an omnichannel experience
Your customer doesn’t want to talk with your sales reps anymore. They want to be able to configure their products on their computer or cell phone with self-service. They also want a flawless buying experience (remember how delivering accurate quotes helped your employees?) It also goes a long way in making your customers happier. That’s why it’s time to adopt an omnichannel approach to all that your company does. From the beginning of lead generation to the final sale an omnichannel experience can make all the difference for your business.
It’s time to remove the ‘shoulds’ from your vocabulary this year and start your journey to a truly digital manufacturing operation.
Don’t let your resolutions go by the wayside this year, get in contact with us to learn how we can make your company the best it can be in 2020.