Nationwide Coverage

Auto Parts Inventory

Customer Retention Through Better Inventory Management

Mechanic holding two types of wrench in the repair garageMissing parts - every service shop has experienced it and suffered the pain of not being able to find them. It’s not only your bottom line that it affects, it also wreaks havoc on your customer satisfaction.

During this time when many businesses are in temporary shut-down, it’s an opportune time to re-think processes and consider how to make improvements.

So, to help you improve your bottom line, retain valued customers and save time, consider implementing these three internal controls:

1. Access

It's important to limit the number of individuals who have access to your dealership’s inventory management system, and that the access level is regulated. While we may never suspect that our employees would do so, a person could change quantities in your inventory system without alerting someone, if access is not supervised or cross-checks put in place.

Errors can also occur because an untrained person inadvertently makes an improper entry.

By allowing access to a few well-training individuals, and requiring them to keep their login credentials private, you can minimize the risk of your inventory system being tampered with. If a false entry does occur, you will know exactly who to ask.

2. Knowledge

Has your dealership created policies and processes for managing returns, pulling parts, authorizing discounts, restocking parts, retrieving valuable inventory, handling returned or damaged parts and managing employee transactions?

Doing so will minimize inventory errors. Once these policies are in place, be sure that each employee is well trained and that supervisors follow-up on any process mistakes.

3. Identification

One of the best ways to minimize missing inventory is to identify the parts that are most susceptible to being lost, and generate strategies that can reduce losses. Maybe your employees are misunderstanding a restocking process, or perhaps the issue is a part that is frequently unrecorded on their work orders?

One of the best ways to isolate the cause of your inventory losses is to conduct frequent inventory checks, especially on the special-order shelves. Whether they are done on a monthly, quarterly or bi-annual basis, having a better idea of when the parts go missing, can help your business determine what went wrong.

Guide to Optimizing Inventory MGMT

Looking for expert help to ensure that your parts department is doing all that it can to optimize customer satisfaction and order fulfilment? Contact Pro Count West today.

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