Building Customer Loyalty

It's easy to get caught up in the search for new customers. In making that a priority, it's also easy to overlook building loyalty from your existing customers. Use Checkmate® reports to identify your high-volume customers as well as those customers you've lost or may be losing. The "Accounts Ranked by Sales" Report (5,12,4) presents activity by account in a format that is easy to understand. Run and review the report at least quarterly to see trends in customer activity.

This Nugget's link will lead you to good advice on taking proactive steps to build customer loyalty. Pay particular attention to the second-last paragraph titled "Use the Small Business Advantage." If you've not realized the advantage of being small, the author explains it well in just a few lines. Click on Can Customer Loyalty Be Bought to read the article.

Checkmate Tip: Navigating Long Fields Faster

Normally, maintaining your inventory and pricing is a very complicated and time-consuming job. Even though it is very important, it is a job that is often overlooked. The Checkmate Advanced Management Reports include a powerful tool for maintaining inventory pricing. This tool allows you to update pricing and change levels at the same time without having to print a report. All the work is done on your screen and all of the information you need to make intelligent decisions is right there. If you are not yet using the "Maintain Inventory Pricing" function (Checkmate 5,12,12 and Classic v12,12) now is the time to look at it.

"Maintain Inventory Pricing" also incorporates a very smart system to recommend to you the items that are either mispriced or are at non-optimum stock levels. It will even suggest appropriate minimum and maximum stocking levels for you based upon your own needs. With this report, you can easily pinpoint the following areas:

• Price levels that are too high
• Price levels that are too low
• Stock levels that are too high
• Stock levels that are too low

Before using the tool, build a Part Evaluation Report for the recommended 90 days. This report should be built by interchange number for all of your parts. When you start the pricing tool you will have the option of reviewing pricing (P), levels (L), or both (B). Select "B" to start and you will be asked if you would like to specify a date code to be inserted in the cents field for all parts you modify. If you use that feature, enter the appropriate code for the current month.

Initially, review the top 10 part types based upon a 90-day part analysis report. Look for these items based upon a filter selection of (B). Later reviews can be done using a filter of (P). Review all of the other top 25 part types at least once during the first 3 months. Afterwards, revisit these part types 2-3 times per year.

You no longer need to set or use stock levels. If you utilize the Advanced Reports to review pricing, the computer will perform the evaluations for you automatically. The computer will also decide if you need the part, and will tell you, without you having to set any stock levels at all.

To use the "Maintain Inventory Pricing" feature:
Go to 5,12,12 (V12,12 in Classic)

• You will see this message: "There is a Part Evaluation report on File. Do you want to use this report?: <Y>"
• Enter "Y" to use the current report. Enter "N" to exit and rebuild new part analysis report
• You will be asked: "What is the selection filter for this Run?: <B>"
• Enter: "P" for price levels only; enter "L" for stock levels only; enter "B" for both price and stock levels
• Answer or bypass: "What is the date coding you want in the cents field?" Enter a number or type "cr" to accept the default
• "Do you wish to skip items already re-priced? <Y>" "Y" displays only items needing pricing (recommended) or "N" displays all items
• "Do you wish to skip items whose levels have been updated? <Y>" "Y" displays only items needing levels (recommended) or "N" displays all items
• "Verify? <Y>" "Y" accepts your selections (recommended) or "N" restarts
• Part: enter part code (ENG is a great place to start)

Here is what you will see when the program opens:

Most of the information on this screen is self explanatory. However, you may be surprised at the large number of navigation choices or actions you can take from here. Enter "?" to access this screen:


When you become familiar with these selections you will realize what a powerful tool this is. You no longer need to avoid repricing. It's now almost easy!

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