New research unveils lessons in CRM for manufacturing

Picture your best service rep getting a warranty claim call. They toggle between your warranty system, enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, dealer portal, parts database, finance system, and three spreadsheets just to answer one question: "When will this be approved?" Your dealer or partner is on hold. Your rep is frustrated. Your competitor just answered the same question in 30 seconds.

ServiceNow and Endeavor Business Intelligence recently surveyed more than 200 manufacturing leaders to understand why customer experience (CX) is breaking down despite tech investments. Leaders told us they're caught in an impossible bind. Customer expectations have skyrocketed, but CX teams are drowning in system chaos.

According to our research:

• 75% of manufacturing leaders plan significant services revenue growth.
• More than 90% of leaders say customer retention is one of their top initiatives.
• Teams toggle between more than five systems to resolve a single customer issue.
• Warranty claims sit in limbo because silos across ERP and customer relationship management (CRM) obscure entitlement and product history.
• 55% of leaders want ERP processes (orders, entitlements, install base) exposed in CRM where customer teams and dealers work.
• ~90% show interest in AI, especially when tied to concrete use cases such as recalls/quality.

Let’s explore how CRM for manufacturing can help, with two valuable lessons from leaders.

1. Turn your customer system into mission control

Your support teams are playing detective every single day. A dealer calls about a recall. Your rep checks the customer system and the order system, then calls quality, and then emails parts planning. Thirty minutes later, they're still hunting for answers. Meanwhile, your dealer is frustrated, and customer satisfaction is at an all-time low.

The fix isn't another system. It's making one system the nerve center for everything. With this mission control, those on your CX team can open one workspace and instantly see:

• Complete order history and current status
• What's under warranty and what's not
• Install base details and service history
• Any active recalls or quality issues
• Existing warranty claims, their status and details
• Parts availability and lead times
• Dealer contact info and shared case notes

This is all accessible with no system-hopping, no “let me call you back,” and no lost context.

Your dealers get the same view, playbooks, and data. When they call, they're not starting from zero—they're picking up where the last conversation ended.

This results in faster answers, fewer escalations, less rework, and higher renewal rates because every customer interaction feels seamless.

2. Add intelligence where seconds matter

Here's an interesting finding from our research: AI interest spikes when it’s inside the work—not used as a separate tool. This is where smart automation can change everything.

During problem-solving, an AI-powered system can check entitlements automatically, show parts availability in real time, and route complex issues to the right specialist with full context already attached. AI can also check for historical claims and, based on a combination of inputs, predict claims for approval, or those that need further investigation.

For risk management, AI can spot patterns in quality data and proactively reach out to affected customers before they even know there's a problem.

This leads to reduced handle times, cleaner handoffs, and fewer errors. And instead of being replaced by robots, your team members feel like they have superpowers.

Why this matters now (not next year)

Manufacturing is getting more complex, not simpler. You're managing custom projects alongside standard products, direct sales alongside dealer channels, and service contracts alongside one-time purchases.

Every additional complexity creates more handoffs. More handoffs mean more opportunities for things to fall through the cracks.

ServiceNow can help you orchestrate your existing systems without ripping and replacing them. We provide:

• One workspace that connects quote-to-cash-to-claim for both your team and your dealers
• Smart orchestration that surfaces warranty data, ERP data, quality systems, and planning tools where people actually work
• Dealer-ready experiences with shared playbooks and audit trails so that everyone stays in sync
• AI that works in the workflow—summarizing, suggesting, and executing routine tasks without anyone having to think about it

Your 90-day action plan

If you’re ready to cut cycle times, reduce cost to serve, protect margins, and grow service revenue—all without disrupting your core systems—here's a 90-day action plan to help get you started:

Month 1: Pick your pilot. Most manufacturers start with warranty claims or order exceptions—high visibility, fast wins, and measurable impact.

Month 2: Connect your core systems to the customer workspace. Surface orders, entitlements, and the install base where your teams work. Keep your systems of record exactly where they are.

Month 3: Turn on intelligent assistance. Enable case summaries, next-best-action recommendations, and guided outreach for your chosen customer journey.

Get more insights in the complete manufacturing CRM research report. And discover specific strategies that are separating industry leaders from the pack.