Increasing Customer Satisfaction by Avoiding Stockouts

May 16, 2012
Stockouts are a nuisance to both businesses and customers, creating situations where no one is happy. You now have an order sitting in limbo that cannot be filled, while your customer resents the time lost waiting for your new inventory to arrive. You’ve worked hard over the years to secure and build a positive relationship with your customers, but regardless of that long-standing relationship, if your company cannot provide what customers need on time and on budget, then they’ll take their business elsewhere. Woman searching for products at a grocery store, Fishbowl Inventory BlogHaving a manufacturing inventory management system in place can help you manage and predict inventory patterns, eradicating consistent stockouts. The control built into the software allows users to monitor existing inventory in the warehouse, and alerts them to low levels so that crucial items can be reordered in time. Manufacturing inventory control allows organizations to maintain a complete overview of their warehouse inventory levels, avoiding both stockouts and the expenses that many organizations incur to get out-of-stock items into their warehouses quickly. hile manufacturing inventory control won’t completely eliminate stockout situations, it will reduce them significantly. That said, there is more to avoiding stockouts, and consequently increasing customer satisfaction, than simply using a manufacturing inventory management solution. Increasing customer satisfaction must be a company-wide goal. Manufacturing inventory software is complicated, and employees must be adequately trained in the system in order to benefit from the efficiencies that it can provide. Aside from comprehensive training, there should be an open communication channel for any questions that may arise. Manufacturing inventory control systems track and analyze inventory levels, simplifying reporting and providing insight into trends you may not otherwise notice. With a complete overview of current levels and historic stock usage, manufacturing inventory software can predict seasonal or economic fluctuations to save management teams hours that would have been spent manually poring over reports. Inventory management is also important within your warehouse organization. Make sure that anything going in or out of your manufacturing business is tracked, whether that’s accomplished using barcodes, RFID tags, or another system. Being able to find inventory quickly and efficiently is an important part of effective manufacturing inventory management. Employing best practices in your manufacturing business will help you avoid stockouts and ensure smooth operations. Customer satisfaction must always remain top of mind because without customers there are no orders. By properly implementing manufacturing inventory software, manufacturing businesses will be able to keep customers, employees, and management happy by making stockout scenarios a relic of the past.