In today’s manufacturing industry, product alone often isn’t enough to stand out from the crowd anymore. Modern buyer behaviors are changing, with many preferring a B2C-like experience. It’s becoming increasingly clear that manufacturing companies need to provide an outstanding digital customer experience to differentiate their business — and that includes after-sales support.

One often-overlooked aspect of customer service is warranty claim processing. While many manufacturers consider warrant management to be a drain on revenue and resources, automation technology is reshaping this perspective. Not only can automating the warranty claim process enhance the after-sales customer experience, it also streamlines tedious workflows and saves money with each claim.

Warranty Claim Automation

The era of spreadsheets and paper-based processes is over. Due to an increasing number of issues in warranty claim processing, organizations worldwide lose thousands of dollars every year. This is driving the demand for better automation solutions, with the global warranty management system market expected to reach $6.24 billion by 2031, according to MarketWatch. 

Automating warranty claim management enables businesses to streamline this tedious function while reducing manual tasks, increasing accuracy, and minimizing costs. Buyers can also see the benefits, as warranty claim automation improves customer service and the after-sales experience. To gain a better understanding of the many advantages of claim automation, let’s first take a look at the challenges associated with traditional warranty management.

The Challenges of Traditional Warranty Management

Manufacturers must keep track of multiple products, parts, and services — each requiring different pieces of information — and process them correctly. In the past, warranty management has been an intensive, highly manual process that hinders productivity and lacks efficiency. In addition to validating claims and client information and identifying quality issues, manufacturers also need to minimize the number of claims to reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction.

Managing this process can be challenging for a number of reasons, including:

• Data entry errors: Manual data entry is a time-consuming, repetitive process that is prone to human error. Any mistakes or redundancies can result in improper claim filing and sunken administrative costs.

• Inefficient processes: Without automation, processing warranty claims is slow and susceptible to errors, taking up time that could be better spent on high-value tasks. 

• Poor reporting: Tracking and processing warranty claims in traditional spreadsheets offers little transparency. This lack of visibility, combined with mistakes in data entry, can lead to inaccurate reports.

• Fraudulent claims: Validating warranty claims is another tedious task that can cost your business money if fraudulent claims are paid out. Manually verifying this information often results in errors that allow false and duplicate claims to slip through the cracks.

• High indirect costs: With so much labor involved with inefficient, manual warranty processing, it’s understandable that businesses see it as a resource drain. On top of fraudulent and duplicate claims, the time it takes to process each claim adds up, costing businesses thousands of dollars.

Why Automate Your Warranty Claim Process?

Automating the warranty claim process brings myriad benefits to manufacturing businesses, from reducing manual labor and streamlining processes to boosting profitability and customer satisfaction. Here are a few major advantages that make warranty claims automation a competitive differentiator in the manufacturing industry:

1. Boost Efficiency and Turnaround Time

A warrant claims automation solution enables manufacturers to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to process each claim. By only requiring information that’s relevant to quality issues, automated warranty claims management also boosts the efficiency of each claim. Plus, real-time data capture gives you the information you need to assess and validate claims as they occur for quicker turnarounds and issue resolution. 

2. Improve Data Accuracy and Reduce Human Error

With automation technology, you don’t have to worry about the risks of manual data entry. Automating the warranty claim process enables seamless data transfers across systems to minimize human errors and improve the accuracy of your data. 

3. Visualize and Validate Claim Data

The best automated warranty management offers out-of-the-box dashboards to help visualize real-time warranty process insights. Intelligent audit systems also validate warranty claim data to prevent false or fraudulent claims from getting through. With these measures in place, your business can rest assured that only authenticated product issues are eligible for payment.

4. Reduce Costs Per Claim

From eliminating expensive manual processes and errors to automatically validating claims for payment, warranty claim automation enables businesses to maximize workflow efficiency while minimizing the number and cost of claims. This also enables claims agents to assess and file claims faster, allowing more time for high-priority tasks.

5. Increased Customer Satisfaction

Today’s B2B buyers have high expectations for a streamlined experience even after their purchases. With efficient claims management and an easily accessible customer portal, your business can enhance the after-sales buyer experience, providing customers with peace of mind that their quality issues are being addressed promptly and with care. This increased customer satisfaction ultimately boosts their loyalty to your business.

What to Look For When Automating Business Processes

The right business automation technology should have the features and agility to support both your warranty management process and company at large. While there are a wide variety of tools available on the market, the manufacturing industry has some unique functionality needs to consider. The good news for manufacturers: Liferay DXP can easily handle processes that an automated warranty management software would normally do, or integrate with your existing systems.

To help you determine the right solution for your business, here are the key capabilities you should look for in business automation solutions:

Flexibility and Scalability

Your solution needs to be flexible enough to handle the wide range of products, parts, and services your business offers. This includes things like linking warranty data to product categories and generating unique serial numbers for specific products. In addition, your warranty automation system should be scalable to grow with your business, managing and supporting your expanding needs.

Integrations

A warranty automation solution shouldn’t stand alone in your digital ecosystem. It needs to be able to integrate with the rest of your enterprise software to ensure effective automation and data integrity. That means aggregating and organizing product, client, and claim data from various sources across your digital infrastructure.

Quality Assurance

Without automated quality assurance and claim validation, your agents may as well continue their manual operations, as there’s no way to identify false or excessive claims. By evaluating and authenticating warranty data with intelligent software, your business can eliminate the risk of paying out on fraudulent claims, driving profitability throughout the process.

Customer Experience 

Creating a positive customer experience is paramount for manufacturers to stand out from the competition — and that includes after-sales interactions. Automating business processes with an intuitive customer portal allows your clients to file claims and provide the necessary information with ease. This enhances customer service and boosts satisfaction, creating a loyal buyer base for your manufacturing business.

2 Minute Video Summary

Get a 2 minute summary of how a Liferay customer portal can be built with powerful, out of the box tools that make it easy for you to automate business processes like warranty claims management and enable your business to streamline this tedious function. Check out this video:

 

Reduce Your Claim Costs With Liferay Customer Portals

Want to learn more about how automating business processes like warranty claims management can help you improve customer satisfaction and save money on claims? Liferay’s customizable customer portals empower businesses to optimize their after-sales experiences with self-service content and help centers for streamlined support and claims services. 

To start reducing your claims costs, visit our manufacturing customer portals page.