Tips for Job Shops to Improve Customer Service

Staying competitive is always a top priority. Providing great customer service will help your customers feel more connected to your shop, which will help you win the business and bring them back when they have other jobs.

Find a solution that is proven for job tracking

If your customer calls and wants to know where his/her job is, how quickly can you find it? Or can you find it at all? If you don’t have ERP software, you have to set down the phone, go out to the shop floor, and physically find the job. You can find any job on the floor with just a few clicks with ERP software. It takes much less time, and your customers will feel like their job is a priority because you know exactly where it is.

This is especially good for repeat jobs as it makes customers feel like your shop remembers them and cares about them. With a good ERP system, you can look back at any jobs you’ve done for a customer in the past and tweak them to fit the customer’s current needs.

Find a solution that will give you quick and consistent quotes

Don't waste time juggling numbers and filling out formulas. ERP software knows how much to charge for time on specific machines and materials. All you have to do is tell the software how to route the job, and it will come up with a quote. You can even choose a different profit margin depending on if it’s a rush job or any other criteria you have. When your shop can turn around quick, professional-looking quotes, you’ll likely win more jobs and start your customers off with a good impression of your shop.

For some shops, getting a consistent quote is difficult because different people have different ways of coming up with quotes. This can be frustrating for a customer because they’re never sure how much their job will cost. For an owner, this can be frustrating because no two jobs have the same profit margin. You can eliminate this discrepancy with ERP software. Using ERP software to create quotes means having the same process and the same formula every time. Your customers will feel like your shop is professional if you have this consistency, and you won’t have to worry about keeping the right margins on your jobs.

Find a solution that will improve your on-time delivery

Rush jobs, jobs that take longer than expected, and many other circumstances familiar to job shops can throw off your schedule. With ERP software, you can manage your schedule more effectively, allowing you to create a more accurate schedule and easily check if you can take on a rush job.  All of this pays off for your customers because they will get their jobs done on time.

Find a solution that will improve your part quality

Quality control is a hard thing to manage if you cannot see how your shop is doing. The first step to improving anything is by tracking it, but if you can’t access or trust your numbers of good parts, how can you make more good parts? If you’re using pen and paper to track which parts are up to spec and which aren’t, how long does it take before folks outside the quality department know where the problems are?

With ERP software, you can quickly see how many parts are good in real-time. That means if there are trends in parts that aren’t meeting their standards, you can correct them quickly instead of waiting. If a person needs more training or a machine needs to be tuned up, you can see it right away. Once you fix any problems, your customers will get their jobs quickly, and you’ll be confident that every part is exactly how they want it.

An ERP for your job shop

JobBOSS² is a quote-to-cash solution and ECI’s ERP for job shops. We understand the pains you go through daily. That’s why our solution is a perfect fit for your needs in job tracking, scheduling, quoting, and quality control. Find out how we can help you improve your customer relationships.

If you enjoyed reading about the benefits of an ERP for customer service, check out these other articles:

• Connecting Your ERP and Shop Floor Data for Immediate Success
• Four Ways ERP Is Changing to Keep Up with Manufacturers’ Evolving Needs
• Why Innovative ERP Technology Is Critical to Manufacturers Looking to Hire the Next Generation of Talent