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In the
dog days of summer, with co-worker vacations increasing the
workload for those of us left behind, work can get to be a
grind. Our minds are elsewhere, and it is sometimes hard to
concentrate.
Our customers
feel pretty much the same way. Typically, this is their busiest
work season. They, too, are struggling with workloads and
thinking about upcoming vacations.
Now is
the perfect time to kick off some summer campaigns and contests.
One of
my favorites is to have the parts department focus on customer
service and, in particular, backorders. Put a twist on my
usual rule that we don't go home until we've found every single
part anyone is looking for and start a contest that rewards
the store with the most consecutive days without a backorder
that has not been sourced.
This
is pretty simple to do, and it starts a discipline that is
useful yearlong. It gets everyone thinking about the fact
that service to the customer is not just a procedure. It's
about caring and being personable. It's about supplying parts
and expediting backorders.
Another
byproduct of this contest is that you'll do a pretty good
job of supplying parts.
So start
a contest. At the end of each day, review any orders that
were backordered to determine if each part was found. If they
were, it counts as a day of success. Publish the number of
consecutive successful days as an ongoing count. (If they
miss a day, they start over in accruing consecutive success
days.) It's fun and everyone gets a chance to see how good
the parts department is.
In the
service department, run a contest that requires every job
be assigned an estimated completion date. Then keep track
of how many consecutive days the service department is able
to complete every job by the estimated completion date.
If this
seems unrealistic, remember that customers hesitate to come
to your shop because it's a "big black hole," a place where
machines are sent to be fixed but you never know when they
will be completed or what it's going to cost.
There
are a couple of important byproducts from this contest, as
well. The service department will have to generate estimated
completion dates and record those dates in the work order
system. They'll also have to communicate to the technicians,
telling them when the job has to be completed. Just these
two items will improve service to your customers. The customer
will know when the job will be completed, and the service
department will meet the promised completion date.
Just like
in the parts department contest, each day review the jobs
that were completed and see if the estimated completion dates
were met. Publish the number of successful service days as
an ongoing count.
Summer
is a busy time for work and family. Let's have some fun and
improve our service to customers.
To learn
more, check out the offerings from Quest, Learning Centers.
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