How to create a better customer relations experience through ERP systems

One of the many things that successful businesses have in common is a great Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, system. An ERP system is a type of software that manufacturers and distributors use to manage day-to-day activities such as

financial management, planning and scheduling, CRM, project management, and much, much more. It’s a great way to keep track of just about everything that goes on across your operations and lets all of your team members view the critical information in real-time. An eye-opening tool key to streamlining processes within and helps you achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction along the way. 

 
If you’re wondering how to improve your customer service functions and build stronger relationships, using ERP to your advantage, keep reading on. 
  

Quicker turnaround times 

 If you’re looking to attract and retain high-quality customers, you’ve got to provide them with efficient and speedy turnaround times when it comes to processing their orders. After all, there’s nothing worse than placing an order with a company only for it to go through weeks later due to poor processes or scattered systems. 
 
When it comes to placing an order, you will need as much information about a customer as possible straight from the beginning. You’ll also need to be detail orientated fully understanding their requirements and have an air-tight operational strategy in place to make sure the order is processed accordingly. The only problem? Lots of businesses have multiple teams and processes that need to be involved in the order process which may result in a disjointed approach or key orders falling through the cracks or taking much longer than needed, given all the touchpoints it has to go through. The solution? An ERP system. An ERP system stores all customer information and order details within the system, allowing for a smooth transition from the customer placing the order to getting it out the door. 
 
Various teams within your company will know exactly where each order is at any given moment and what actions are yet to be taken. Your customers don’t care what goes on behind the scenes. What they care about is receiving their orders quickly and as effectively as possible. A great ERP system lets that happen. 
 

A strong understanding of your customer partnerships  

 ERP systems also allow you to amass a centralised and sophisticated database that contains key information about customer interactions. This means no matter how new someone is to your team; they will have all of the information they need to better serve prospects and customers alike. This is especially helpful when it comes to documenting particular pieces of information, such as billing terms. If a customer was to call up and complain about an order, process or experience, all of your team members would be able to access records of their history from one central location. 
  

Benefits of ERP solutions 

• Customer information: Every query, complaint, and request that a customer has ever made, is visible to every department. This allows for a more seamless sales cycle
  
• Product knowledge: All information can be stored centrally and contain related items, specifications, allergens, and more 
  
  
• Lead times: You can update in real-time, and track ongoing orders to better inform customers 
  
  
• Inventory levels: Your team can quickly check what's in stock, out of stock, and more, at any given moment 
  
  
• Pricing and offers: Your team are always in the know about standard pricing and special offers, or they’re simply auto-applied to take off the pressure of having to remember 
  
  
• Replacements, repairs, or returns: All replacement, repairs or returns information can be stored centrally to ensure every team member has access to the information and reasons codes to spot trends that may be impacting quality 
   
  
• Payment and account information: An ERP system also allows you to collect or process invoices, debt collection, and tax fulfilments, storing vital information about payment terms, accounts, addresses, billing information, and more 
    

Get in touch  

If you’re concerned about internal processes impacting your external customer experience, whether it’s due to legacy processes or the need to optimise your planning – now may be the time to invest in an ERP system. The solution that will help you to improve lots of your overall business management processes as well as that all-important customer experience! Take the step to get happier both internally and externally now.

Click the button above to start your discovery journey with one of the WinMan team of experts today to see how we can help you implement long-term systems and solutions to support your business process optimisation.