Robotic precision works well on the assembly line, but it takes a human touch to build lasting customer relationships and loyalty. Even in the process-driven manufacturing industry, customers want—and expect—more than high-quality products; they also seek partners that respond promptly to their needs, understand their business challenges, and help maximize their investments.
Achieving this means starting with customer service.
10 Customer Service Best Practices for Manufacturers
Customer service plays an instrumental role at every stage of the client experience: before, during, and after a purchase is completed. Whether customers are reaching out for product information, in need of technical support, or want to know when a delivery will arrive, each interaction represents an opportunity to set the tone for a long-term positive relationship. The following 10 best practices will go far to enrich the relationship, turning every customer contact into a competitive advantage.
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Get to Know Your Customers
Manufacturers that spend time understanding their customers’ strategic and operational goals are better positioned to assist them and become a trusted advisor. This effort begins at the product discovery phase, when customers are investigating potential solutions and seeking expert guidance. As part of this early relationship-building process, manufacturers can ask customers about their line of business and target market, problems they want to resolve, current processes and workflows, implementation timeline, budget, and level of support required. Post-purchase, this in-depth customer knowledge helps manufacturers anticipate customers’ needs and provide proactive support, such as deliberately scheduling equipment maintenance during a client’s downtime.
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Make Contacting Your Business Easy
From initial product inquiries to order status updates and technical support, potential and current customers have many reasons to contact customer service. Their desired method of contact often reflects the urgency and complexity of their needs, while convenience is also a factor. A sudden supply chain disruption, for example, might send retailers straight to their phones with concerns about upcoming seasonal stock, while a routine question about product specifications might be delivered via email. This variation underscores why manufacturers should invest in multiple communications channels beyond phone and email, such as text messaging, live text and video chat, customer portals, and social media. Responsiveness is critical, too. Long hold times, delayed email responses, or anything that introduces friction to the experience can damage customer relationships.
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Establish Clear Rules for Issue Escalation
With an established framework that clarifies how, when, and to whom an issue gets escalated, manufacturers can feel confident that customer issues receive the proper assistance without getting lost in standard support queues. Escalation rules should clearly define the impetus for faster and higher levels of support. Examples include strategies for production line stoppages, safety hazards, or problems that could exceed a specific financial threshold in terms of potential impact. Procedures should be documented and easily accessible, with assignment of ownership at each escalation stage to ensure accountability and timely resolution.
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Develop Active Listening Skills
Active listening means fully attending to what customers are saying and responding thoughtfully, not merely waiting for a momentary pause to read from a script. It requires genuine engagement so that customers feel heard and valued, such as by asking them detailed questions about their situation or paraphrasing their concerns to confirm an accurate understanding of the problem and impact. Nonverbal cues, such as tone of voice or facial expression when troubleshooting an equipment malfunction via video, are also indicators of urgency or frustration that customer service agents should acknowledge.
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Keep Your Customers in the Loop
Equipment downtime, supply chain disruptions, and product-quality issues can cause ripples throughout the entire manufacturing lifecycle. Proactive communication with customers is key to maintaining relationships. Status updates and timelines for resolution are two ways customer service can help manage expectations and fortify trust. Customers may not be happy about subsequent delays, but transparency in customer service can go far, giving customers time to make their own adjustments. Remember, too, that outreach doesn’t have to mean bad news. Keeping customers informed about positive developments, such as new product features or upcoming innovations, helps strengthen loyalty.
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Implement a Self-Service Portal
Not every query requires the assistance of a live agent. In fact, many customers prefer to find what they need independently. For manufacturers, a customer portal with self-service capabilities meets this demand by centralizing and making critical resources, such as parts catalogs and maintenance guides, easily accessible. User-friendly portals can also allow customers to make changes to their accounts, such as updating billing information; handle tasks autonomously, such as submitting service requests; and engage in forums where fellow customers share their tips and tricks. The result? Faster resolution and higher customer satisfaction, as well as more bandwidth for service reps to resolve more intricate support concerns.
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Surface Customer Feedback Internally
Manufacturers should view customer feedback as actionable intelligence to optimize what is working and reveal areas in need of improvement. Product defects, requests for desired features, difficulty navigating the customer portal, and delayed shipments are among the multitude of reasons that prompt customers to reach out via the company’s various communication channels. This feedback should then flow systematically from the customer service team to all relevant departments. For example, if a customer service team receives ongoing customer complaints from distributors about packaging damage, this input should be forwarded to the following areas:
Logistics to investigate shipping methods, to procurement to evaluate packaging materials, and to product design to assess structural vulnerabilities.
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Offer Comprehensive After-Sales Support
Customer satisfaction. Loyalty. Recurring business. After-sales services—in the form of help desk and remote diagnostics support, dedicated account managers, preventive maintenance, ongoing training programs, and access to replacement parts, among others—can help manufacturers achieve these goals and more. Another benefit: A robust after-sales support program can generate significant additional revenue through service contracts, warranties, spare-parts sales, and upsell/cross-sell opportunities. It also strengthens relationships, turning customers into long-term partners who will be more likely to recommend the manufacturer to others.
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Track and Analyze Customer-Service KPIs
First-response time, average resolution time, and the number of cases handled per rep are just a few of the many must-track manufacturing key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect customer-service effectiveness. Customer-centric metrics, such as satisfaction scores, retention rates, and customer lifetime value, are equally important; when these numbers dip, cross-referencing them with operational KPIs can help pinpoint underlying issues. For example, if customer satisfaction levels drop, manufacturers might want to investigate corresponding dips in unscheduled downtime, on-time delivery, or after-sales training quality. Comparing the same KPIs before and after an improvement is made can demonstrate whether the solution was successful.
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Optimize Customer Service With Technology
Manufacturers and their customers have everything to gain by equipping customer service teams with advanced technology. A few solid examples of enabling technology include real-time analytics tools, remote diagnostics driven by Internet of Things devices, predictive maintenance systems powered by artificial intelligence, and customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that centralize customer data. A platform that automatically notifies customer service that a client’s equipment is nearing the end of its warranty could prompt a rep to proactively reach out to extend the warranty or suggest a more modern solution. Similarly, AI can analyze purchase patterns and service histories to suggest complementary products for customers and identify accounts at risk of churn. In these ways, customer service can help generate sales, in addition to providing support.
Deliver Exceptional Customer Experience With NetSuite for Manufacturers
NetSuite’s manufacturing ERP solution helps companies deliver exceptional customer experiences through integrated sales, service, and support capabilities. The cloud-based system combines comprehensive CRM functionality with manufacturing-specific features, enabling businesses to streamline their customer communications, automate support processes, and make data-driven decisions about products and services. Through centralized customer data, equipment history, and service metrics, manufacturers can offer more personalized support to their clients, while also uncovering opportunities for growth and improvement.
Whether responding to an initial request for information or troubleshooting a complicated system breakdown, excellent customer service in manufacturing requires a level of care in process and handling; in some ways, this is even more important than the actual reason for the outreach. The 10 best practices laid out in this article can help manufacturers create more efficient support operations that, in turn, satisfy customers, drive revenue, and encourage repeat business.
Manufacturing Customer Service FAQs
What is manufacturing customer service?
Manufacturing customer service often involves complex technical issues and specialized product knowledge. It encompasses support for customers throughout the product lifecycle from purchase to installation to after-sales services.
What is the role of customer service in the manufacturing industry?
Service teams act as the liaison between customers and the manufacturer. They provide customer assistance, share feedback within the organization, identify potential sales opportunities, troubleshoot specific problems, coordinate maintenance and repairs, and more.
What customer service challenges are unique to the manufacturing industry?
Unlike customer service in other industries, customer service representatives in the manufacturing industry must possess a higher level of technical knowledge. For example, equipment can require highly complicated repairs, so service teams need in-depth knowledge to answer support questions. Indeed, the pressure to minimize a customer’s downtime is intense, as equipment failures can cost manufacturing customers thousands of dollars in lost production.
What are the benefits of providing great customer service for manufacturers?
Increased customer retention and loyalty are two key benefits of excellent customer service, often leading to repeat orders and valuable referrals. Research shows that customers are willing to pay a premium for top-notch service, as more consider total lifecycle support when making purchasing decisions. Great customer service can also result in additional sales, perhaps in the form of a maintenance contract or equipment upgrade.
What are the 4 Cs of great customer service?
The 4 Cs of great customer service emphasize communication, consistency, competence, and care (sometimes referred to as courtesy). Communication involves keeping customers informed about their service requests. Consistency means delivering reliable, high-quality support. Competence refers to the technical expertise and product knowledge required to resolve an issue. Care means showing genuine concern for the customer’s needs and requests for assistance regarding product or customer service.
