4 ways outsourcing after-sales services address OEMs’ biggest challenges

Providing after-sales service, including maintenance, service, and repair is critical for manufacturers as it drives customer satisfaction and leads to brand loyalty.

Yet, today, in addition to bringing products to market and providing after-sales services, manufacturers need to address pressing matters such as the COVID-19 recovery and the war in Ukraine, causing supply chain disruption.

Then there are problems associated with the skills gap.

After that, manufacturers need to drive towards sustainability.

With so many items and challenges on the to-do list, it’s no wonder many manufacturers look for external help.

Let’s take a closer look at how outsourcing after-sales services works.

What is outsourcing?

Outsourcing provides companies that struggle to find time and resources to carry out vital tasks with access to infrastructure, human resources and expertise.

What areas of after-sales service can manufacturers outsource?

Providing an efficient after-sales service operation requires complex capacity planning and juggling many moving parts.

A third-party outsourcing partner such as Veritek can assist manufacturers with the following:

• Customer services. With access to customer service-level agreements, a customer service team can handle calls efficiently and plan, track and manage jobs, parts and people
• First-line remote customer support service that provides fast help when sensors flag issues or unexpected issues stop production
• Second-line onsite field services including among other things, installation services, preventative maintenance, onsite break/fix and upgrade services
• Third-line repair centre support. Dependent on your service level agreement, OEM-trained specialists can provide back-to-base repairs and swap services
• Logistics, warehousing spare parts and managing inventory

Why choose to work with a niche outsourcing partner?

In contrast to companies that distribute products and provide outsourced after-sales services on the side, niche third-party partners choose to specialise in certain areas and work with specific customers and sectors.

In the case of Veritek, it is a third-party resource that doesn’t sell products. It only provides after-sales service support.

Because Veritek chooses to specialise in specific sectors, it can leverage its experience and knowledge to ensure it upholds its partners’ brand values and delivers customer satisfaction.

What are the strategic benefits of outsourcing after-sales service to a third-party partner?

Provide after-sales service without the associated infrastructure costs

Manufacturers can expect a niche outsourcing partner to operate proven service delivery systems and processes.

Moreover, to deliver after-sales services without associated risks, delays & SGA (selling, general and administrative) overhead costs.

Scale service capabilities quickly and easily

Manufacturers become more agile and responsive when they outsource after-sales service to an after-sales servicing partner.

To illustrate, you can:

• Get availability in the domestic and international locations you need
• Be able to adjust to unplanned or fluctuating workloads
• Allow customers to plan equipment servicing around their workload
• Conversely, quickly scale down capacity when you need

Increase the visibility of end-user maintenance/repair data

Maintenance data can helps manufacturers improve products’ durability, lifespan and customer experience.

When you outsource your after-sales service to a third-party, your partner’s project managers will ensure consistent metrics reporting according to your instructions.

Exceed customer expectations with qualified project managers and skilled technicians trained by you.

To look after your equipment to your specific expectations and to be able to diagnose problems, your partners’ engineers will need to be trained and accredited by you.

To sum up

In addition to bringing products to market and driving customer satisfaction that leads to building loyalty, manufacturers must address complex external challenges, including supply chain disruption, a skills gap and the need to meet environmental targets,

Choosing to outsource any part of a manufacturing operation is daunting. But manufacturers can gain confidence in their decision-making by working with a niche partner specialising in providing services specific to their sector.

With the right partner, manufacturers have the time and resources they need to deliver a consistently high-quality product. And concentrate on revenue-generating activities.

While simultaneously dealing with whatever external challenges are thrown at them.

We’d love to know your thoughts.

This blog is relevant to the following Veritek industry sector verticals:

Medical
Robotics and cobotics
Print & Graphics
Optometry
Digital Cinema
Photo imaging