Now, more than ever, customer service is imperative to the success of your business. With 90% of consumers reading reviews online before even visiting a business, it is critical that your business leaves a good impression on its customers. The way you run your parts department plays a big role in that.

Combine this with your potential customer’s ability to quickly find alternative providers and better pricing online, and it becomes detrimental to your business if you fail to obtain positive feedback whenever possible.

Before you get started on improving customer service, you must first look at how you can measure your company’s performance in that area. To do this, you want to focus on three key inputs:

1. Customer retention – By comparing the number of return customers to new customers, you can quickly determine how your current customer base feels about you. A high number of return customers is often a sign of good, if not great service. If you have a higher portion of new customers, this may mean that your customers are not leaving with a good impression of your business.
2. Order fulfilment - Being able to provide your customers with the parts they need when they need it, is critical to ensuring your customers come back. To measure order fulfilment, you will want to look at the number of closed orders and consider the strengths and weaknesses of each: delivery time, fulfilment accuracy, inventory turnover, rate of return, etc.
3. Your average rating on key review sites – Reading reviews and monitoring your overall rating online is an effective way to measure customer satisfaction. It not only tells you how your past customers feel about your business, but it should also help you easily pinpoint areas of strength and weakness.

After reviewing this information, you will have a better idea of how your customers feel about your business. Hopefully the outcome is positive, but no matter where you stand in regards to your customer satisfaction levels, it is important to realize that there are always ways to improve.

Pro Count West as listed three ways that your auto dealership can improve the operations of its parts department and increase customer service levels.

1 - Supply chain efficiency

Inefficient supply chains increase costs and can drive customers away (and towards your competition). By better understanding your supply chain and being prepared for delays in delivery, you can better mediate your customer relations.

To improve supply chain efficiency, you want to consider automation, minimum stock levels and ensure you have back up suppliers in case your current supplier is out of stock or parts are on backorder.

2 - Accurate forecasting

Understanding how your parts sell is critical to serving your customers as quickly and efficiently as possible, whether they are ordering parts or having service done on their vehicle.

To get to know your inventory better, look at past sales trends, seasonality, proposed marketing initiatives and similar information to come up with an informed prediction about how much of a specific SKU your automotive parts department should have on hand at any given time - and how much you will need in the future.

3 - An organized parts department

Sorting through a haphazard parts inventory is not only tedious but can be detrimental to your customers' overall opinion of your business. Your customers expect to be served quickly and accurately and, in most situations, the longer they have to wait to find out whether you have the part, the more their satisfaction with your business will decrease.

By effectively organizing your parts, recording incoming/outgoing inventory and being able to quickly see what you have on hand means that your staff will spend less time looking for parts and more time serving your customers in a timely manner.

Your success depends on your customers. By ensuring that they leave your business feeling happy and well looked after, you can increase the likelihood of them returning for future work and recommending them online and to their friends.

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.