TIP #2: REDUCE PAPER AND LABOR COSTS USING TECHNOLOGY

Document management software, once a nice-to-have, is quickly becoming a must-have. The ability to electronically store and retrieve important documents has helped some dealers save as much as $100,000 a year in labor and free up space formerly occupied by filing cabinets and boxes of old records. But what else can you do with a document management solution?

• 1) Got retail? Let your cashiers spend time merchandising instead of filing.
  When filing is overwhelming, you can lose focus on some other key areas of the business, including retail. Renew your focus on merchandising – or on other customer-facing or value-added services – instead of filing. Cashiers focused on customers and on selling your products, rather than on filing papers, means you see better results to your bottom line.
• 2) Increase value-added services to customers.
  In a $40 million company, Inevitably, your customers are going to want copies of invoices and statements for their records. Without electronic document management, the labor required to do this will either cause you to delay other work or have to charge your customers for the service. Quickly retrieving and sending all their signed invoices is a significant way to impress your customers and earn their loyalty – and their repeat business, without breaking the bank.
• 3) Consolidate printing equipment and reduce capital costs.
  Rather than printing on dot matrix printers, switch to laser printers. Besides being more efficient and faster, depending on your setup, you might be able to consolidate a number of printers into one and save the rest of that space for more valuable stock or merchandise. Your costs on repairs, maintenance and cartridges reduce as well.
• 4) Empower employees to answer customer account questions right away.
  Today when a customer calls with an account-related question like, "How many of part x did I buy at what price, and did I pay that invoice?" your employee answering the phone must either put the customer on hold and research the answer or call him back. By giving your employees electronic access to documents, they can find the information and answer the customer's question on the spot. Even more importantly, in a multi-location operation, employees at a branch can field a customer or vendor question themselves without needing to call the home office to research the question. This saves time and expense for two people and greatly improves customer service.