Manufacturing & Distribution

Manufacturers and distributors spent lavishly on technology over the last five years hoping to optimize their manufacturing and distribution networks. However, many of those same companies find themselves falling further behind in the race for global market share. Why? The most common reason identified, in multiple independent studies, was an inability to leverage existing customer relationships. Global market research and customer service are sighted as areas where the greatest improvement must occur for manufacturers to remain competitive.

Surveys of the top 25% of manufacturers, by segment and geography, show that pricing, quality, marketing, sales and customer service must be tightly integrated components of a successful manufacturing company. Organization integration has already begun to separate the winners from the losers in the race for market dominance. How well a manufacturer adopts strategies, information technologies, culture and customer centric processes will determine its success.

The ability to respond to changing customer expectations, new opportunities, solve critical customer problems in real time and provide customer service in excess of what is expected, has become the test for leading manufactures worldwide. Becoming customer centric is an opportunity for manufacturers to increase profitability. Listening and adapting to customers requirements, while being organizationally integrated, increases the competitive advantage of leading manufacturers.

Questions to ask:

• Does every employee know who your most valuable customers are?
  
• Do you use customer information to more accurately price your products and to create new products or services?
  
• How current and accurate is the information on which you base your decisions?
  
• When was the last time your executives and key managers were trained on accessing systems to get the information they need to make better decisions?
  
• Can you customize complete solutions to meet your customer’s needs?
  
• How easy are you to do business with?
  
• Are you a seamless company?
  
• How accessible is information across your company? Does it reside in silos?
  
• Do you have a central repository of customer information?
  
• Do your employees share a customer centric vision?
  
• Do you employees want to be recognized as the best at what they do?
  
• How do you optimize investments in customer centric solutions and services?
  

In summary, building and maintaining customer loyalty is as much a part of the manufacturing process as making the product and delivering it. Worthmore’s executive consultants can help you to integrate your people, processes, manufacturing and distribution to increase customer loyalty.