Like many young hardware companies, your manufacturing process might resemble this:
- Trays of components
- Assembled, become your finished product
- Boxed-up, become your packaged product
- A stack of packaged products shrink wrapped to a pallet
- Pallet loaded on a truck
- Truck on route to your distributors or customers
That’s a process, a rough description of your manufacturing & product delivery process, but it’s a process nonetheless.
I’ll bet that this process has been tried and tuned to maximize efficiency (and your profit margin) and I’ll bet that during that process nobody EVER “wings it”.
This process is key to your business.
But try as you might and despite the best efforts of your QA team some percentage of your products will find their way back to you in the form of a return or something that requires repair.
What happens then? When one of your products is returned during your warranty period and a technician has to perform a repair, what is that process…. and does it matter as much?
Consider this, the repair event during Warranty, can be critical to the health of your business, many times your customer’s first interaction with your company, after initial purchase, is when something breaks and they count on you to make it right.
In the event that the repair requires the replacement of a circuit board, controller, etc.. your team performs a simple swap-out and your customer is up and running again soon.
Charlie Mantione, EVP & Chief Revenue Officer
So, what’s the one simple tweak you can make to improve your bottom line?
Often times the circuit boards that require replacement are not off the shelf components, you may have extras on your shelf but they probably required a custom design and are not a generally stocked item by a distributor.
Which means?
These components are EXPEN$IVE.
So what happens to that “broken” circuit board once it finds its way back to your warehouse? Frequently, we’ve seen with clients, (before they work with us) those expensive boards end up in a pile somewhere either collecting dust or possibly awaiting a trip to the recycler.
One client of ours had a board that cost THEM about $980.00 EACH and when they swapped out that “broken” board, the old one sat in a pile – never to be touched again.
Enter PanurgyOEM. Our complete repair and restoration service was able to work with this client to repair and return these boards to the parts inventory for a small fraction of the purchase price. Not only was the client able to save a significant amount of money on each repair, they were able to repurpose these circuit boards and keep them out of the electronics recycle ecosystem.
Repairing their circuit boards instead of tossing them aside greatly improved their margins by improving the warranty process.
Why should your warranty/returns process receive serious attention?
As I touched upon earlier, the first interaction your customer often has with your company, after purchase, is when they require repair or have a problem with your product. The returns process is an outstanding opportunity to grow your business for three key reasons:
- Customer Satisfaction
As you take good care of your customer to return or replace his product in a timely and efficient manner, you have an excellent opportunity to assess their level of satisfaction with your company, your service and your product.
“Dear Ms. Customer, Thank you for your patience while we repaired your product (etc…) If you feel you received great service from us would you consider sending a tweet about your experience with the hashtag #yourhashtag or leaving a review on our Facebook page here: facebook.com/mycompany/review.
- Market Research
Another excellent opportunity to gain valuable feedback from a customer who is currently thinking about your product and has now formed an (hopefully good) opinion about your company.
“Dear Ms. Customer, Thank you (etc…) In our ongoing efforts to make products that delight our customers, which feature would you most like to see in a future model of the XG-7?
- More bass range
- Better color selection
- Fewer calories
- Sales Opportunity
Again, you have their attention and as you satisfy their repair requirements why not pitch new products?
“Dear Ms. Customer, Thank you (etc…) We’re glad you like the XG-7, we listen to our customers and strive to include features they want and care about, we are actively working on the new version, the XG-8 which will be released this summer, ABC Company would like to extend a special offer to you….(trade in / big discount / something).
In order for a company to have the right to request feedback or propose a new offer, your warranty period – or returns lifecycle process has to be solid and one that will give the customer a high level of satisfaction.
PanurgyOEM has been delivering quality assembly and returns & repair lifecycle services since 1983.
We help consumer electronics, pro audio and industrial controls companies streamline their assembly and returns & repair lifecycle helping them improve their relationships with their customers, improve margins by managing capital and operating expenses, and providing a reliable cost and time effective process for any or all parts of the manufacturing – returns lifecycle.
Our specialties include:
- Go to market strategies
- Assembly & integration
- Warehouse / logistics
- Shipping
- Returns
- Repairs
Located in Rockaway, NJ, PanurgyOEM can handle all aspects of your returns & repair process. Our 90,000 sq ft headquarters & facility in the NYC Metro area gives us a strategic edge to provide timely receipt and shipping of your products. Our highly trained, ISO 9008 compliant team delivers excellent turn around time for repairs and refurbishment.
To schedule a 15 or 30 minute call to discuss your returns logistics process and explore how we can help, call us at 973-625-4056 or email charlie.mantione@panurgyoem.com