Earlier we discussed that by going with the flow, the whole world will help you succeed; by going against the flow, everyone will become your enemy. This is the importance of understanding human nature. In running a business, you need to sell products to users through employees, so you must always think about the interests of customers and employees; otherwise, you are going against human nature.

A few years ago, we developed inventory planning software called Zhiku Guanjia® (Think Tank Steward). Each month, you simply import the current parts inventory data and the inbound/outbound data for the previous 12 months into the system, and it can produce a demand forecast for the month and give a recommended parts procurement list, including part names and quantities. The greatest advantage of this software is that it can dynamically assess the health of current inventory and tell the company the ratios of effective inventory, excess inventory, and dead stock in its parts inventory.

The American firm Parts Secret Company points out: "About one-third of a company's inventory is wasted, one-third is overstocked, and only one-third is effective inventory. The problem is that when companies put parts into the warehouse, they do not know which one-third is useful inventory." Using Zhiku Guanjia® can prevent ineffective inventory from being put into the warehouse; otherwise, by the time the answer becomes clear, it will be too late.

I was once full of confidence in promoting Zhiku Guanjia®, because the warehouses of OEMs, dealers, parts stores, and suppliers are full of slow-moving dead stock, amounting to tens of billions. Using inventory planning tools can help companies reduce a great deal of waste and save costs.

However, many dealers gave up using the Zhiku Guanjia® software shortly after adopting it, citing "inconvenience of use." After analysis, we found that the users of the software are the dealers' parts planning/procurement staff. Previously, they lacked demand forecasting tools and purchased inventory based only on experience. After using the Zhiku Guanjia® software, they had to spend time organizing past inventory data, which increased their workload, and the result of using the software was that their inventory problems were completely "exposed in broad daylight."

Increased workload brought them not praise but criticism, which goes against human nature; no one is willing to do such a foolish thing. Therefore, the reason for refusing to use this software is not hard to understand, showing that when promoting a product, the issue of conflicting interests must be resolved.

A leader of a certain construction machinery OEM, in order to make employees value product quality, put forward the slogan "zero product defects, zero customer complaints." The idea was good, but the result was counterproductive.

Game theory (image from the Internet)

First, customer complaints are one of a company's assets and the greatest driving force for continuous product improvement. Second, customer complaints show that customers still trust the company; otherwise, they would simply switch brands and not bother to complain. Third, a side effect of zero customer complaints is that frontline employees, in order to fulfill the boss's wish, will try every means to filter out customer complaints.

Reporting only good news and not bad news means management can hear only achievements and cannot discover problems, becoming "blind" and "deaf." Customer problems also become hot potatoes pushed back and forth, and customer problems are resolved more and more slowly, putting the company not far from closure.

With customer complaints "cleared to zero," how can a company get customer feedback on products? How can it promptly solve the problems customers face? This will lead to a higher customer churn rate, and the most fatal consequence is the "mutation" of the company's service culture: fewer people tell the truth and more people tell lies, and the company gets farther and farther from customers.slowly, and not far from closure.

With customer complaints "cleared to zero," how can a company get customer feedback on products? How can it promptly solve the problems customers face? This will lead to a higher customer churn rate, and the most fatal consequence is the "mutation" of the company's service culture: fewer people tell the truth and more people tell lies, and the company gets farther and farther from customers.

Reprinted fromFirst Construction Machinery Network