Realizing opportunities for lower costs and higher revenues CFOs understand that excellence in post-sales service is important both to bolster the bottom line and to support business growth, and they agree that the quality of their firms post-sales service should reflect its importance. This is a key finding of a recent CFO Research survey of 126 senior finance executives at U.S. firms with revenues greater than $100 million. The survey, sponsored by OnProcess Technology, targeted finance executives at companies across a wide range of industries. 1 2016 CFO PUBLISHING LLC CFO research CFO
The finance executives in the survey reflected on the problems their firms are grappling with in coordinating and managing post-sale service activities, including issues with getting at all the data they need. They outlined the challenges finance teams face in committing the resources needed to address these problems measured in time, money, and management attention. And they confirmed that senior finance executives are seeking innovative solutions to their post-sale services challenges. The CFO s Post-Sales Challenge Senior finance executives responding to the survey understand how important it is to meet the challenges posed by post-sales service. This fact was confirmed by the three-quarters of survey respondents (75%) who agree that their companies could improve post-sales service substantially. In terms of indicating exactly what needs improvement, more than half of the respondents (52%) agree that coordination among different postsales activities is relatively weak at their firm. And the post-sales stakes are rising for companies and their finance chiefs. Looking forward, nearly six in ten (58%) believe that, over the next few years, business growth is likely to substantially increase their costs for providing post-sales service. Looking forward, nearly six in ten (58%) believe that, over the next few years, business growth is likely to substantially increase their costs for providing post-sales service. When asked to describe the biggest challenges they face in providing excellent post-sales service, many survey respondents cite difficulties in prioritizing and coordinating post-sales activities. Marshaling the resources needed to tackle the problems remains a stumbling block to improvement efforts. As a VP of finance writes: Associates still do much of the work and tracking by hand. They have many, many competing priorities. Opportunity: Direct Financial Benefits CFOs readily agree that solving the post-sales puzzle leads to recognizable financial benefits. The broad areas where survey respondents feel that improved post-sales service can deliver meaningful financial benefit are shown in Figure 1. Of the areas that deliver direct cost savings, elimination of redundant or duplicated work in post-sales service is cited most frequently by FIGURE 1. Finance executives see many opportunities to realize meaningful financial benefit from changes in post-sales service. Does your company have an opportunity to realize meaningful financial benefit from making any of the following changes in its post-sales service? 82% 71% Improving customer satisfaction with post-sales service Eliminating redundant or duplicated work 70% Taking better advantage of sales opportunities afforded by post-sales service Percentage of respondents answering yes. 48% 42% 2 2016 CFO PUBLISHING LLC Reducing service or repair inventory Outsourcing or contracting more post-sales activities
respondents (71%). Finance executives also signaled that improved process efficiency has the potential for widespread impact, with 43% of respondents believing that improving processes and eliminating redundancies could reduce the cost of post-sales service by more than 5%. More than eight in ten survey respondents say that improving the quality of post-sales service would boost customer satisfaction. Asked to identify the specific post-sale service components that represent the greatest opportunities for cost reduction, respondents cite customer service/call center operations most frequently (37% of respondents), closely followed by fulfillment of service-level agreements (33%). Customer training and support (23%), repairs and replacements (21%), and inventory and warehousing (19%) round out the top five opportunities for cost reduction. For obvious reasons, executives at companies that maintain physical inventories see post-sale services as a particularly ripe opportunity for cost savings. A clear majority of respondents from product-based companies (59%) see meaningful financial benefit from reducing service and repair inventory. Interestingly, respondents say that when they are considering a decision to outsource post-sales service, it is based on more than just the potential cost savings. In fact, of respondents that currently employ outsourced or contracted post-sales services, more than half (59%) say they do so in order to take advantage of the dedicated service or specialized expertise of the provider. By comparison, lower cost is cited as the primary motivation by 36% of the companies employing outsourcing. Opportunity: Customer Satisfaction and Retention The CFO knows that a satisfied customer is a customer who will buy again, with predictable frequency and margins, as well as with lower cost to the company. And the connection between excellent post-sales service and customer satisfaction is equally clear. Among the finance executives surveyed, more than eight in ten (83%) say that improving the quality of post-sales service would boost customer satisfaction at their companies. An equally strong number (82%) say their company could realize meaningful financial benefit from improving customer satisfaction with post-sales service. FIGURE 2. Finance recognizes the opportunities improvement in post-sales service provides and see great potential for the future. TODAY: At my company, improving the quality of post-sales service would boost customer satisfaction. TOMORROW: Post-sales service will become an increasingly important differentiator for my company. 83% 78% Percentage of respondents answering yes. 3 2016 CFO PUBLISHING LLC
Further reinforcing that message, more than three-quarters (78%) of respondents say that postsales service will be an increasingly important competitive differentiator for their firm. (See Figure 2.) A CFO explains that excellent postsales support would result in his firm: Realizing multiple simultaneous opportunities to strengthen relationships and cross-sell. And an EVP of finance says the ultimate goal would be: Both changing the culture to be more service-oriented and improving the communication process so post-sales followups are unique to the individual who is utilizing the product and why they are using it, which could lead to increased cross-sell opportunities. Better Communication, Better Coordination, Better Data So where to begin? The survey found no shortage of improvements for finance chiefs to focus on. When asked which improvements in postsales service would be most beneficial to their companies, half (50%) of the respondents select better communication and coordination between different functions. A controller writes of the need to: Heighten communication between functions - eliminating the many silos that exist between facilities/locations. In addition, better data on customers and service events is seen as most beneficial by 41% of respondents. A CFO writes that he needs: Better data. Better analysis of data. Another CFO notes that he: Needs the tools to track our follow-up with our over 40,000 customers and to determine the effectiveness of such follow-up. Better execution of individual processes is seen as most beneficial by 35% of respondents. To measure that, a CFO writes that he needs: Defined objectives to improve service and reduce cost, as well as accountability for making progress in meeting those objectives. Aligning different activities with common metrics (27%) and greater visibility into and control over end-to-end processes (23%) round out the top five improvements. A CFO adds: We have to make a better realignment between the quality and service structures within the organization so no issue is left unresolved due to lack of ownership. * * * In sum, the CFO Research survey confirms senior finance executives interest in and engagement on the topic of post-sales services, as well as the critical importance of excellence in post-sales service to both deliver cost savings to the bottom line and to support customer relationships and corporate strategy. The challenge for CFOs related to post-sales service is clear. The opportunities that accompany the challenge are clear. And so to begin. 4 2016 CFO PUBLISHING LLC
Sponsor s Perspective business success depends as much on what happens after the sale as it does on the sale itself. How efficiently and intelligently your company handles everything from shipments and customer support, through parts dispatch and asset recovery, can make a huge difference to your top and bottom lines. Yet, even though the post-sale supply chain fuels aftersales service, which accounts for up to 80 percent of core profits, most companies haven t focused on how to optimize it. The challenge is, the post-sale supply chain is highly complex with many moving parts and stakeholder interdependencies (3PLs, customers, field engineers, repair vendors, spare parts suppliers, and more). It s very difficult for businesses to get a handle on, and as a result, it s weighed down by high cost-toserve, causing companies to lose millions of dollars annually. OnProcess Technology specializes in helping companies optimize and drive costs out of their post-sale supply chain, while improving customer satisfaction. This expertise has made us the outsourced managed services provider of choice for many of the world s leading companies across technology, broadband, medical equipment, logistics, manufacturing and mobile industries. By combining OnProcess proprietary post-sale supply chain visibility and advanced analytics platform with the best practices we ve honed during our 18 years in business, we ve consistently delivered results like these: n Saved a global hardware vendor $60 million annually in stranded inventory by improving asset recovery. n Saved a Fortune 500 company $21.1 million by optimizing their field and parts dispatch, including transportation, labor and asset recovery. n Reduced dispatching costs for an in-home satellite installation services provider by 40% while boosting their customer satisfaction rating by 14%. To learn how your organization can achieve dramatic cost savings like these, contact us at (508) 623-0810 or sales@onprocess.com. www.onprocess.com 5