The right battery is an essential component of your engineered product. In the marketplace, every product competes for the distinction of being high quality for its price point. Lithium batteries offer the greatest value, boosting your application’s performance and reducing long-term battery replacement costs.
However, working with the wrong lithium battery provider may actually hurt your sales and customer satisfaction. You should partner with a well-reputed global battery maker to avoid these five pitfalls of working with a small vendor:
1. Your Lithium Batteries Are Not In Stock
Small battery providers usually offer less of a product selection. So, when you need specific lithium-ion batteries right away (perhaps because your product is shipping out soon), you may end up waiting a week or more for your vendor to get your batteries in stock.
It’s frustrating to pay expedited shipping charges to receive your batteries on time. Often, there’s no guarantee your batteries will arrive in time. If your shipment is late, your customers’ deliveries are delayed.
2. Customer Service Is Too Understaffed To Help You
Your battery provider should be the expert on your application’s power needs. However, even expertise is not very useful if customer service representatives are rarely available to answer your questions. Smaller vendors usually have fewer people working to assist their clients.
When there’s a problem with the batteries you ordered, you may have to wait longer for a response. Unfortunately, you can’t ship a product to your customers if it’s equipped with a problematic battery. These delays negatively impact your opportunity to make sales and hurt your own organization’s level of service.
3. Your Battery Fails After The Warranty Period Is Over
A good battery warranty is essential to improve your customer satisfaction. Your customers save money on battery replacement costs when they have a long warranty, and they also feel more secure in their purchases.
That’s why it’s important to look for a lithium-ion provider that offers up to five years of coverage. A larger, global provider is more likely to offer the best battery warranty, with free replacements or repairs along with technical support. On the other hand, small vendors tend to offer shorter warranties because they sell less reliable products.
4. You Have To Pay Extra Shipping For Your Lithium Batteries
Since small vendors subcontract their batteries, they have to charge their clients more for shipping. Plus, their smaller infrastructure slows down shipping processes, meaning you have to wait longer despite paying a higher shipping rate. International shipping is another challenge for small battery providers due to the government requirements associated with shipping lithium-ion technology overseas.
5. The Lithium Batteries You Buy Are Not High Quality
Most small battery providers don’t manufacture their own batteries. Your customers need a battery that has been assembled properly and tested using state-of-the-art tools. Otherwise, the battery may be unsafe or fail prematurely. A lithium battery’s cells also must be matched and balanced perfectly. The only way to ensure a battery has been made properly is to supervise production, which smaller vendors are usually unable to do.
Global lithium-ion providers are the more trustworthy partners when it comes to providing safe, high-performance batteries suited to your product’s specifications. Whether you need a custom lithium battery designed for your unique application or expert recommendations on choosing an off-the-shelf solution, a global provider is situated to meet your needs.
Does your engineered application need a performance boost? Learn about four qualities of lithium batteries that improve product performance.