Parts Ponderings v1.4

When the customer hangs up the phone, or walks out of your door, after placing an order, do they have a feeling that you have everything under control and will do your utmost to satisfy their needs? How do earn the loyalty of your customers?

This is an interesting question to pose isn’t it? The best in the Industry has a market capture rate of less than 40% of their parts business. That is the parts are required to keep their brand of equipment running with proper maintenance and repairs.

That means we have lost 60% of the parts business. How did that happen? Don’t we care about the parts business or about the parts that the customer purchases? Why is it that so many dealers seem to be so complacent about their parts business? They are complacent too. Are you?

Sitting back waiting for the phone to ring; Putting the backorders into the supplier provided emergency network without doing any expediting.  How did we let ourselves get to this place? We are not any different than the next competitor. We have settled for substandard performance and now it is like we are doing the best we can do. We have undergone the drip, drip, of water torture and without knowing it we are happy with where we are now. I can’t believe this is true but the evidence is all around us.

Have you heard the story of the frog that was put in a pot of warm water on the top of the stove and then the heat was turned on? Well the water got warmer and warmer and the frog felt like he was in a bath and slowly but surely his energy drained out of him. By the time the water was boiling and he needed to get out of the water it was too late and he died.  That is where we are heading without any action.

Contrast that where a frog was dropped into a pot of boiling water on the stove top. He jumped out instantly, perhaps he got burned but he lived another day. Which frog are you? The time is now.