Associate Voice Drives Aftermarket Change

How DPAM is redefining customer service from the inside, out

DENSO Products and Services Americas (DPAM), our aftermarket team, is dedicated to providing their customers – professional installers and consumers – with quality remanufactured products, reliable distribution and excellent retail sales and service. And, they’ve been consistent in achieving that, until a few years ago when they hit some growing pains. Now, to get back to excellence, they’ve started to redefine who their customers are and what great customer service looks like.

When it comes to aftermarket quality, DPAM delivers. One of the largest aftermarket suppliers in the market, they are known for having the best products, with warranty rates lower by almost 50 percent of competitors. But, as business has grown, they’ve run into issues meeting customer demands. A mix of outdated systems, warehouse space limitations, manpower constraints, and now COVID-19 have added up to a rough couple of years and some bruises to their reputation. That’s why, three years ago, DPAM launched its original Reborn initiative – an effort to redefine customer service and change the way they work.

“Thinking from the customer point of view is a key point in our Reborn approach. In aftermarket, we are very focused on our end users. We often ask for their feedback and base our success or improvements on the customer voice. But, over time, we’ve lost that focus on customer service when it comes to working internally with one another, with our DENSO teammates,” said Steve Corey, Director of Aftermarket Sales. “Putting ourselves in each other’s shoes – meaning truly listening and learning to collaborate with one another – we knew this was core to rebuilding our reputation as a great supplier.”

DPAM’s transformation started with changes to old, disjointed operating systems. Their goal was to connect associates – breaking down silos and building an environment that supports excellent customer service – from the inside, out.

Creating CAMS

DPAM started its transformation journey by focusing on system improvements, knowing that this has a huge impact on associates’ and end users’ experiences with the company. DPAM tackled two (2) major headache areas: end-to end operating systems, and the DENSOconnect product site.

For its end-to-end operations, DPAM had many disconnected, disjointed and outdated systems. Having various, older systems caused several issues with orders and overall efficiency. Looking to their associates for guidance, the Consolidated After Market Systems (CAMS) project kicked-off to address these issues.

CAMS took more than 15 different systems and merged them into one operating system that supports all the workflows and processes needed to fulfill orders. From quoting and ordering, to warehouse management, CAMS covers the entire spectrum of business for DPAM operations.

To develop CAMS, DPAM put a bottom-up team structure in place. Each Functional group had a designated project team member to voice their group’s needs directly to the vendor. Each Function also had a designated subject matter expert who dedicated 60 percent of their time to supporting their project team member, sharing regular updates with the rest of their team, and collecting team feedback. Executive advisors from each Function also supported in moving the project forward when teams were stuck.

Phase 1 of CAMS launched in 2018, followed by Phase 2 launch in May 2020. So far, feedback has been positive, but DPAM knows its work isn’t done.

“Continuous training is key with this project. Change is difficult, especially if you have been using the same system or going through the same process for so many years,” said Himanshu Taranekar, Senior Manager of Corporate Planning. “We also recognize that we need to shift quickly from a build approach to an enhancement approach. The system is built – we need to now look at enhancements to continuously improve the existing system and ensure we’re getting all the functionality we need from it.”

Revamping DENSOconnect

DENSOconnect was another system DPAM knew they couldn’t ignore. A site where both DENSO associates and consumers can purchase DENSO parts, DPAM knew there was great opportunity to improve the customer experience and DENSO brand.

DPAM looked to its end users for feedback and used the same bottom-up team structure as they did with CAMS, ensuring that several different teams and perspectives had a voice to improve the site.

Launched in May, the site now offers an improved user interface, easy search functionality, downloadable reports, and online access to part look-ups, orders, returns, claims, status checks, invoices, and more. Users can also now upload purchase orders – a once paper form process now available online.

Both CAMS and DENSOconnect projects were geared toward creating efficiencies and changing the way we work. These are key focus points for Reborn 21. These projects were crucial to DPAM’s Reborn efforts and pushing us to change our mindset, skills and knowledge,” said Himanshu.

Associate Voice Comes First

DPAM looked to its associates for feedback throughout the CAMS and DENSOconnect projects, and they continue to do so as they start to prioritize and implement more Reborn ideas.

“We have been relying strongly on the voice of the associates to bring about change. We need to hear from the people doing the work to understand what’s wrong, what we need to improve, and how to improve,” Steve said.

To gather initial ideas, DPAM setup a Reborn 21 website where associates can submit anything related to improving safety, quality, flexibility, digitization and customer service. They then have a dedicated team review the ideas and work with leadership to prioritize.

“We realize we can’t pursue everything at once. We need to focus our efforts so we can really dig in deeper and make changes that not only save money, but also truly improve safety, quality, flexibility, digitization and customer service,” said Steve.

The Reborn team has also held informal brainstorming sessions with associates to understand their challenges and ideas more deeply and to involve them throughout the process. DPAM leadership is dedicated to keeping associates updated on what ideas were submitted, how they’re being prioritized, and what action they are taking.

“We still have a long way to go in our Reborn journey. As long as we continue to listen to each other, and really identify who our customers are in each situation, I know we will achieve great things,” said Steve.

Learn more

Click here to watch a video and see how DPAM teams are driving change.

Click here to watch a video about changes to DENSOconnect.

Share your Story

DENSO globally introduced Reborn 21, an initiative to help guide all of our efforts on actions that will help the company survive and thrive this year and beyond. Learn more about Reborn 21 and how teams are rebuilding quality and changing the way we work, here (password: denso2020). All associates play an important role in helping the company survive and thrive – to share your story or ideas, email Communications@na.denso.com.