Would you agree that revenue growth depends on customer growth? 

According to the 2017 State of Small Business Report, 69 percent of small businesses are expecting an increase in revenue in 2017.  But to realize that growth, it will take some doing, which is why 40 percent of small business owners have identified “improving existing customer experience and retention” as a top strategy this year.

What doesn’t jive with that strategy is the fact that 43 percent of small businesses “do not track their inventory or use a manual process.”

In this day and “technology” age, that’s a nearly archaic approach to making sure that customers, new or existing, will not only get what they want but when they expect it delivered.

So why are so many small businesses still practicing poor inventory management? And yes, that is what it is when the method is to manually record data into spreadsheets. It’s a poor strategy especially if based on saving money. That’s kind of like “cutting off your nose to spite your face.” Human error can hurt your bottom line.

Think about the increased risk for making mistakes and what that could do to your customer’s loyalty. Just one misread number can trickle down to the storeroom or warehouse, causing confusion when items are misplaced or can’t be found. Even worse is the increased potential for the customer to receive the wrong shipment. 

Manual inventory management in no way improves the customer experience. As American businessman and philanthropist, Mark Cuban said, “ Make your product easier to buy than your competition, or you will find your customers buying from them, not you.” 

Investing in an inventory management system makes sense if your goal is to gain customers and grow revenue.