When you are considering how to improve the order fulfilment process for your business, there are many areas you will need to consider. Ecommerce business can be complicated as there are many things that need to happen to get your product from your manufacturer to your customer. Whether you are just getting started with your business or have been operating for years, there is always room to make improvements in your process to better both your business and your customers’ experience.
At Stork Logistical, we are dedicated to making life easier for our clients by providing hands-off order fulfillment solutions. We help our clients make their businesses more efficient, saving them both time and money, all while making their customers’ experience a great one. In this article, we break down some of the best ways that you can optimize your fulfillment process and ensure you are creating a great customer experience.
Simplify the Process for Your Employees
To make your business more efficient and provide a superior experience to your customer you’ll want to ensure that you have optimized every stage of your order fulfilment process. This means understanding how every step of the process can be optimized to make life easier for your employees and guarantee a good experience for your customer every time.
Consider how the location and setup of your fulfilment facility will impact the process your employees take. Ensure you have clear instructions about how items should be packed to ensure a detail such as bagging liquid goods or protecting fragile items never gets missed. Take away the need for your employee to problem solve from moment to moment and expedite your processes all while also providing a great experience.
Utilize Time Saving Technologies
When it comes to making your process as simple as possible, nothing compares to automation. There are many services on the market that can help you have a fast, reliable and accurate process at the touch of a button as soon as your customer places an order.
When you utilize time-saving technology such as automation to help you fulfill your orders, you reduce the chance of human error that might occur if you were to manually input customer data to create packing slips and shipping labels. Automated processes allow you to be efficient on a large scale, making your fulfillment processes faster.
Have a Transparent Process
When you want to improve your order fulfillment process, it is always a good idea to reflect on the type of experience you would want to receive as a customer. Think of a time when you ordered a product and then never received any information aside from the initial confirmation email. This experience may have led you to feel anxious about your purchase and curious about when it might show up.
A great order fulfillment process includes communication with your customer. Automated processes can help make this easy to do by notifying your customers when their order is being prepared right when a tracking number has been created to when it has been delivered. By communicating with your customer, you can improve their experience and reduce the need to have employees respond to emails or calls from customers looking for this information if it has not been provided,
Always Carry Enough Product
It would be impossible to fulfill your orders without having your products on hand and ready to be shipped. Your customers want a quick and efficient transaction that gets your product into their hands as soon as possible. Have strong logistical processes in place to ensure that you always have your products when you need them. Choosing a long-term storage warehouse can be a great option for anyone who wants to have their products stored safely while awaiting customer orders.
If you know that your product will not be shipped promptly, communication with your customer is crucial. Consider selling products that will take time to arrive at your warehouse as pre-orders and provide your customers with estimated shipping dates. If a product is out of stock, ensure your website is up to date and that customers cannot purchase a product that you do not have available.
Hire Professionals to Help
Order fulfillment processes can be complicated, and it can often make sense to outsource the hard stuff to those who do it best. From getting your products from an international manufacturer to your domestic warehouse, then off to your customer, processes can get tricky.
In many cases, choosing to hire a logistical solutions company for your logistical service needs means that you will save both time and money. By having an expert take care of the hard stuff for you, you can focus on the parts of your business that you excel at such as creating a well-loved brand community or developing exciting new products. It is realistic that you won’t know the ins and outs of order fulfillment processes and hiring an expert can be an asset to your business.
When it comes to order fulfillment processes there are many factors that can make or break the experience for you and your customers. Be willing to be critical of your own processes to discover where you can optimize the process and make it better and more efficient for everyone involved. Don’t hesitate in getting help with this critical aspect of your e-commerce business.
