Buying a CNC machine requires a lot of money. You will only make this type of investment when buying a very expensive, exotic sports car. And, you won’t believe how challenging it can be to get ahold of customer satisfaction information.
How do you know whether to buy a CNC machine if you don’t have customer satisfaction and reliability data? To be honest, every brand has a couple of unhappy customers. Therefore, this doesn’t mean you should give up buying a CNC machine.
Instead, focus on how many unhappy customers there are, what the brand did to improve their satisfaction, and what machines owners were most likely to recommend.
When we asked CNC machine owners these questions, we received some pretty interesting answers, so let’s check them out!
Customers’ satisfaction with CNC machines
We first wanted to determine how many customers are satisfied with CNC machines. We understand there are various brands and models available on the market, but this research involves only general data we managed to collect.
The ratings were divided into three categories, “great,” “ok,” and “not very happy.” Based on the reviews, the Shapeoko brand got the highest score. However, many brands are worth mentioning as well, like Haas, Hurco, Centroid, Brother, and ShopBot.
They all had amazing scores, and we heard only great things about them.
Customer service satisfaction
If your CNC machine arrives and everything runs smoothly, you don’t have to worry about something going bad. However, you need to contact their customer support if the problem happens. That’s why in this review, we also included the customer satisfaction category, which, in our opinion, is very important because it tells you a couple of things about a brand.
We applied the same grading criteria, and either customer were satisfied, or they were not. In terms of customer service satisfaction, Brother took the win with Shapeoko following closely.
New vs. used
We had to include another category because many requested that we show new vs. used statistics. You would be surprised to know that nearly 81% of customers prefer new machines, while 19% buy used ones.
Among our respondents, 68% use CNC machines for prototyping, 58% for production, and 51% for fun and hobbies.
Now, considering the level of investment and how much money these machines cost, you have to wonder how many buyers experienced issues with new machines. It’s actually more common than you would have thought. Approximately 12% of new CNC machine buyers faced a significant issue.
Top manufacturing service trends
Throughout the years, customers’ experience in manufacturing has changed drastically. Here are some top manufacturing service trends to look out for, especially if you offer CNC machining service.
Performance-based contract
Many companies are now applying performance-based contracts as buyers become less concerned about purchasing equipment. In fact, they think more about the RIO of their purchase.
When it comes to equipment manufacturers, this means more rentals, fewer sales, and the requirement for usage-based pricing. By renting machines, companies are able to lock customers into long-term contracts, making bigger revenue even from sales.
Connection through IoT and AI
Manufacturers tend to leverage the extensive connectivity of the IoT environment, mostly in AR and VR. In the last couple of years, applications for AI and industry demands have increased while companies compete to find operational efficiencies and offer better hands-on field service.
Going digital
This is absolutely necessary for any CNC machining company. But we still have an impression that the manufacturing industry might be behind the curve in technology adoption. Fortunately, this isn’t too hard to catch up with.
By following simple rules, any company can accomplish success. They could start by creating an FAQ page, allowing users to search for solutions in their own time. Also, your company will engage better with buyers if you have a FAQ page. These types of pages also eliminate repetitive calls and save a lot of time for customer service agents.
Also, displaying product data in a customer-friendly format will make them repeat purchases, which has been proven. In fact, nearly 93% of customers will repeat purchases with companies that offer them an amazing customer experience.
Improving overall experience
Customers will leave without buying anything if a website is difficult to navigate. Nearly 76% of them leave a website without looking backward. To retain your customer, creating an effective digital strategy, along with AI and IoT connectivity and performance-based contracts, might be a good idea.
Make sure you are the resource that keeps customers returning, not the other way around.
Conclusion
In this post, we tried to cover some important aspects regarding customer satisfaction, what to expect when buying CNC machines, and how to boost your CNC manufacturing business. We hope our tips will help you boost your manufacturing business and attract new clients.
