Catering to the needs of customers is important for any business, and it is especially sensible if you run a machine shop because of how competitive this market can be.
To help you exceed expectations with your efforts, here is a look at the assets that customers will be looking for in your operations.
Table of Contents
Value Over Raw Affordability
While aiming to aggressively undercut your rivals on price is a potentially effective strategy, it can actually put off some prospective clients because excessive cheapness may suggest a lower quality of work.
Instead you should aim to price your machining services competitively, while ensuring that you are offering value above all else.
Modern Equipment and Software
Up to date machinery with the latest software solutions installed will not just be a good way to show customers that you mean business, but will also help you fulfill orders more efficiently.
Thankfully you do not need to buy a brand new kit to achieve this, as the used machinery market is vibrant, as you can see from the options available on this page.
Industry Certification
Being certified by independent, recognized industry bodies can help to give customers confidence in the capabilities of your machine shop, even if they have never actually encountered your business before.
Achieving ISO 9001 certification, for example, will demonstrate that you meet certain standards for quality that can give customers peace of mind before they commit to a contract.
Existing Customer Feedback
It has never been easier for would-be customers of a machine shop to find out what others think about a business. A quick online search will pull up comments posted to social media, as well as any official testimonials you might have acquired over time.
For this reason, you need to stay on top of managing your web-based presence to make sure your reputation remains untarnished. Furthermore you can use the same techniques to keep up with what is being discussed in relation to competitors, potentially giving you new ways to capitalize on any complications they encounter in this context.
Guaranteed Delivery Scheduling and Order Tracking
Many customers will appreciate the ability to know that when they place an order with a machine shop, it will be fulfilled within an agreed upon time frame, rather than potentially suffering from delays due to unforeseen supply chain disruption.
Likewise customers can be kept in the loop with regards to the progress of their order through tracking software that shows the stages it has been through in real time. This can help to reduce the need to provide manual progress updates, saving you time while still ensuring customer satisfaction.
Social Media Success
While it is a good idea to take note of the conversations and feedback that relates to your machine shop online, as mentioned earlier, it is also necessary to be proactive about boosting your business’ visibility in the digital age.
You might also like MoreBusiness.com’s Goal-Driven Social Media Marketing Plan
In addition to running accounts on sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram so that customers can see examples of your work with ease, you could even make use of video streaming platforms like YouTube to post content demonstrating your skills in an unambiguous and shareable way.
Your website should also be the focus of your attention, as even with the growing influence of social platforms it will still be the virtual storefront for your machine shop. It needs to be easy to use, contain all the information that a customer might need and also feature regular content updates to appease Google’s search algorithms. Adding a blog is a simple way to achieve the latter.
So as you can see, your approach to winning new customers needs to be multifaceted and modern if you want your machine shop to succeed.
