Mass Customization: 5 Benefits That Can Make Your Company More Competitive
Mass customization is a niche area. The term implies a crossover between large economies of scale and bespoke customized products, and that’s what it is. It’s the idea that while your company produces in quantity, it can still deliver a wide customer choice.
A great example of this is the way in which certain laser cutting MDF products can be produced in high volumes while retaining that personal touch by offering variety within each product range. This draws in your customer as a participant in an individualized way.
Reduced Customer Turnover
By instilling the customization element, you’re letting your customers take part in the process in a way that isn’t possible with standard mass production. While your product is still manufactured in scale, there’s an added touch to appeal to individuals.
This enhanced and personalized appeal is bound to reduce turnover in your customer base, allowing you to focus on attracting new eyes to your product line.
Enhanced Customer Satisfaction
Customers like having choices. Having choices includes the customer in the process and lets each one maximize their satisfaction in the end product. Keeping customers happy with your products is a sure way to keep them coming back to you for more.
It can be very simple. A mere color-change option, or something similar, can really reach out to people. Something as easy as that can radically improve your appeal, as well as making your products stand out in the minds of buyers and the competition.
Seamless Production
You might think that instituting a mass customization element into your existing production system will be onerous or costly, but it needn’t be the case at all. Depending on your particular industry, it could be done economically and without much impact at all.
The overall idea is to phase in customization elements alongside your existing structure. For example, it could boil down to a simple color choice at first, and from there, some other minor additions to detail such as including the user’s initials. Little things make a big difference to the end-users.
Overall Product Improvements
Instituting small changes over time will minimize the impact on your process and incrementally add value to your products as you go. Little by little, you will be enhancing the final product until you end up with real product improvement.
Instead of offering a standard object, you will be able to lead customers to a range of similar products, with minor detailing differences to select from. That’s a small thing in production terms, but a big thing for the end result.
It all Leads to Profits
At the end of the day, companies are about profit. Adding processes that enhance your final product and appeal to your customer base is a sure way to maximizing your profit margin and keeping everyone happy.
With a comparatively small impact on your production side, the potential profits are highly appealing for any industry.
Concluding Thought
It’s very much a wave of the future. Certainly, technological advances are making the impact on production so nugatory that more and more companies will head down this road.
After all, if a better profit margin can be achieved at a relatively low investment in production, it’s an all-around win for your company. The specifics will be down to your particular industry, but it’s well worth looking into.
