The Top 4 Challenges of Spare Part Sales for Commercial HVACR and How to Solve Them
The Critical Importance of Spare Parts in Commercial HVACR
The commercial HVACR industry presents unique and often daunting challenges when it comes to spare parts. Unlike residential systems, commercial equipment—from chillers and rooftop units to complex building automation systems to refrigeration units—is significantly more intricate, frequently custom-configured to specific building needs, and absolutely critical to ongoing business operations.
Commercial HVACR systems are designed and installed as highly customized solutions tailored to the specific needs of a building or facility. The bespoke nature of these systems ensures the units are optimized for performance and efficiency. However, the complexity creates a complex web of interconnected parts that are each critical to the overall system’s function. Consequently, even a seemingly minor part failure can trigger a cascade of issues that lead to significant downtime and impact everything from occupant comfort to essential business operations.
Downtime in a commercial setting is not just an inconvenience; it can mean lost revenue for building owners, disrupted production processes for manufacturers, and even serious safety concerns in certain applications. For original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), the aftermarket for spare parts represents a substantial and often highly profitable revenue opportunity. However, effectively capitalizing on this potential requires navigating a complex landscape and overcoming a series of significant obstacles.
Many OEMs struggle to manage spare parts efficiently, leading to lost sales, frustrated customers and partners, and increased operational costs. While an online parts catalog is a necessary first step, it is rarely enough to solve the complexity of identifying the right part to make the repair in a reasonable amount of time.
Without addressing the fundamental challenges of spare parts management, including data silos, complex part identification, and inefficient ordering processes, OEMs will continue to leave significant amounts of money for themselves and their distribution network on the table. In addition to the frustration and, perhaps even more importantly, the risk of damaging valuable and hard-won customer and partner relationships.
Let’s examine the top four challenges that our commercial HVACR OEM customers face in spare part sales and share some of the key insights we have gained into the complexities of your aftermarket.
Technicians responsible for HVACR repairs need reliable solutions to identify, search, and buy spare parts.
What are the Top Four Challenges for Commercial HVACR OEMs for Spare Part Sales?
Our commercial HVACR OEM customers face several challenges pertaining to their aftermarket businesses. While some OEMs recognize the need for a direct sales channel to serve certain customers and manage specific product lines, they often rely heavily on their dealer network for spare parts sales and service. To address the unique challenges in the part sales process, OEMs must manage spare parts data and coordinate across multiple channels.
Here are four key challenges HVACR OEMs face regarding spare part sales and how to solve them:
Complex Part Identification: Commercial HVACR systems are intricately custom-configured and consequently involve a vast catalog of specialized parts. Identifying the correct replacement part can be a significant challenge, even for the most experienced technicians. Outdated catalogs, inconsistent part numbering, and a lack of clear visuals exacerbate this industry-wide issue, which can lead to increased downtime, profit erosion, and dissatisfied customers.
Solution: Implement a modern, digital spare parts catalog with advanced visual search capabilities that prioritize high-quality 2D or 3D visuals. Leading AI-powered visual search solutions give end users a multitude of ways to identify, find, and buy spare parts for HVACR equipment, including exploded views for easy product exploration, serial numbers, AI image search, and more. Going through this process helps you clean up and manage product data and standardize part numbering conventions.
Slow and Inefficient Ordering Processes: Traditional ordering methods like paper (or some digital) catalogs, phone calls, emails, and outdated part search solutions are slow and error-prone. The ordering process leads to delays in repairs, increased downtime and costs, and frustrated customers. Integrating online ordering with existing inventory and ERP systems is crucial but can be complex.
Solution: Digitizing the ordering process will help optimize your entire aftermarket business, specifically improving your spare part sales experience. Whether your goal is to sell HVACR replacement parts directly or through your partner network, leaders in the industry are transitioning to a fully integrated e-commerce platform for spare parts. The top spare parts solutions connect seamlessly with inventory management, PLM, ERP, and CRM systems to help automate the ordering process. Focus on prioritizing user-friendly interfaces and integrating them into ecommerce systems or partner portals to give all end users the ability to identify, find, and buy parts online.
Counterfeit and Substandard Parts: The market for HVACR parts is not immune to counterfeiting and typically faces this challenge more than other industries. Non-genuine OEM replacement parts can pose equipment risks and tarnish the OEM’s reputation. Identifying and preventing the use of counterfeit parts is a constant challenge. Unlike some other industries, HVACR lacks a completely standardized part numbering system, which adds to the complexity of ensuring that the part is from the OEM.
Solution: Implement a rigorous quality control process to verify the authenticity of parts and utilize a standardized numbering system that extends across all data and channels. Work closely with authorized distributors, educate customers on how to identify counterfeit parts, and ensure your parts solution gives end users the visual information they need to make a confident purchase.
Meeting Customer Expectations for Fast Turnaround: In the commercial HVACR world, downtime is costly. Customers expect rapid repairs and minimal disruption to their daily operations. OEMs should deliver the right solutions across every channel to give end users the ability to supply the right parts to meet these expectations quickly.
Solution: Optimize the entire spare part sales process, from search to order placement to delivery. Our HVACR customers want to deliver a B2C-like experience to their partners and all channels for spare parts orders. By digitizing the complete spare parts buying process and integrating it into business-critical systems, you will be able to deliver a robust part buying experience that limits downtown, reduces reorders, and increases profitable revenue through low-touch spare part sales for your HVACR equipment in the field.
Meet CDS Partable: The AI-powered spare part search and sales solution helps commercial HVACR OEMs sell more spare parts.
Investing in AI-powered aftermarket spare parts search sales solutions needs to be a strategic investment that empowers HVACR OEMs and their partners to thrive in the competitive aftermarket landscape.
With CDS Partable, you can empower anyone to search for spare parts with serial numbers, exploded views, descriptive words, or the snap of a picture. You will improve your customer’s experience and build the confidence buyers need to make an online purchase.
By delivering an exceptional customer experience across every sales channel, you will increase revenue and drive operational efficiency with the technology that is paving the way for HVACR OEMs to have a successful spare part sales experience.
