To keep your customers satisfied in the digital world, brands need to strengthen their order fulfilment processes. To help you make some key improvements today, check out these five areas of focus.
- Work with the right shipping company
To strengthen your order fulfillment procedures, it’s important to work with a great shipping company. You need a company that can meet your standards, stick to deadlines, and uphold customer satisfaction levels. Before you commit, conduct enough research, and consider several different options. First, establish your needs, for instance, which tracking systems do you require? What do you need from your lost shipping policy? Answering these types of questions can help you to identify what’s most important to your business.
- Ensure an efficient warehouse
Improving your warehouse processes can help you to improve your order fulfilment at the same time. To start making improvements, consider these options:
- Improve forecasting: An accurate forecasting system can help you to organize stock levels, and stick to lean manufacturing principles.
- The right technology: Technology can support you in the warehouse, whether it’s warehouse management software, automated picking and packing, and voice-activated systems.
- Train your employees: Simple but true, the better you train your staff, the more efficient the processes in your warehouse.
- Just in time: Using ‘JIT’ production you can ensure that stock levels remain consistent, you’ll improve productivity and reduce waste. When you use JIT you may not need to have a huge warehouse. Smaller custom industrial sheds may be more practical.
3 . Try an order management tool
Order management arrives with many challenges, whether it’s shipping schedules or inventory management. With the right order management tool, your business can streamline the order management process. An order management system can help you to improve the links between your biz and the suppliers you work with. These systems help you to track sales, inventory, and orders. Order management systems can also support you with sales channels, inventory levels, supplier management, and more. With the right tools you can boost productivity and save time.
- Consider your returns policy
To improve your processes, ensure that you provide your customers with an attractive returns policy. Failing to offer a generous returns policy could put off customers, meaning you lose out on potential sales. Make sure your policies are both transparent and appealing. It should be simple for your customers to return their purchases. Throughout the ongoing pandemic, brands have given customers a little extra time to return items. It’s been necessary due to the delay in postal services.
- Establish the cycle time
To make improvements, you’ll need to establish your current cycle time, to assess your performance. If your order fulfilment process is fast, you’ll keep your customers happy. You should aim to reduce your cycle time, ensuring that your customers get their products as quickly as possible.
With a better order fulfilment process you can streamline the customer experience, and gain increased loyalty.
