There's a story about a parts manager who one day noticed a once-reliable customer stopped ordering parts. Confused, the parts manager called to see why. "You stopped ordering," the parts manager said. "Why didn't you tell me?" The shop owner replied: "I've been telling you for months." The parts manager returned to his books, spreadsheets, and POs.
He noticed the shop had slowly but surely reduced order volume over time, and eventually stopped ordering entirely. The parts team never saw the trend because it happened gradually and, like most customers, the shop didn't just say: "I'm buying from someone else!" Here are 4 ways business intelligence (BI) helps parts managers access customer trends and growth opportunities through insights into their wholesale parts business.
1. Understand the Message Behind Customer Data
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There's no doubt most parts departments know their customers well, with most completing hundreds of transactions with these shops. However, if the data is inaccessible, then much of the critical information is an untold story. When parts managers adopt business intelligence tools, like PSXLink, they can easily access sales trends, specific segments of their wholesale performance, and customer behaviours (like when a customer reduces parts spending).
By unlocking and presenting data using interactive dashboards, parts teams can easily identify changing trends, both abrupt & incremental, and get a clear look at what customers are telling them.