THINGS ARE BOUND TO GO WRONG CHALLENGE #1 ORDER ACCURACY

Transcription

1 SPECIAL REPORT

2 When large companies need to process and fulfill orders they have unlimited resources that provide a hands off automated process with inter -connected systems and priority access to multiple common carriers across the globe. The process is cost effective, quick and most importantly...easy. For small businesses with limited resources, the process is chaotic at best. Orders often arrive by web portal, EDI, fax, phone, , e-commerce or other means to the customer service team that then manually keys the data into their back office systems. Once processed, order data is often re-keyed multiple times into disparate internal systems and then re-keyed again externally into multiple common carrier websites. The more orders you take, the more data you need to re-enter and share with various departments.

3 This fragmented approach is full of duplicated and manual effort. It's a labor intensive, inefficient, costly, and error-prone process to get a product from Point A to Point Z. THINGS ARE BOUND TO GO WRONG Human error, logistics and shipping mistakes all result in unhappy customers as well as extra labor and shipping costs. While these mistakes are easily made in small businesses, the good news is that they re often easy to identify and correct. This special report uncovers the 3 biggest challenges small business face regarding how quickly and cost-effectively their shipments travel from warehouse to doorstep...and how those factors impact customer satisfaction. CHALLENGE #1 ORDER ACCURACY Manual data entry and re-keying of orders into multiple systems creates too many order errors. You re sending the wrong items to customers or you re sending items to the incorrect address. As soon as you receive an order, you need to capture it, add it to your accounting system, ship it and keep track of it until it is completely fulfilled. In most small businesses this is a repetitive, labor-intensive task that is error-prone. If you and your staff handle your orders manually, there are increased chances of invalid or incorrect data that needs correction and resubmission. This also leads to high consequences for impacting customer service due to late or incorrect orders. SOLUTION: To avoid such mistakes, you need to make best use of advanced technology, and automate your order capturing process. By employing an automated order handling system, your order fulfillment is near 100% order accuracy. This is a key objective to maximizing labor efficiency and preventing inaccurate shipments. With automated order processing, our order fulfillment process is near 100% accuracy. ~CEO Primetime Petz

4 CHALLENGE #2 ORDER CYCLE TIMES Human intervention is required to connect orders to existing 'disconnected' business systems creating a high cost per order. With every order, your staff is spending time on needless busy work. While capturing, processing and fulfilling each order, they handle several dis-connected back office systems involved in the process. Not all these programs or systems may correspond with each other, as a result of which you may need to copy and paste shipping and tracking data manually from one system to another like UPS and FedEX.com or enter the data into other systems separately. It s a labor intensive expensive process and the longer it takes to submit the order, the longer it takes for your customer to receive it at their front door. SOLUTION: To overcome this problem, you need an automated order system which you can use for the management of your entire workflow and order fulfillment system. An automated order processing system provides integration with existing business systems and validation into order accuracy. The process will alert you of errors through automated purchase order - tracking number matching before the shipment leaves your warehouse and it will also notify you of any changes in the expected arrival at your customer s front door. By making order processing and fulfillment as simple as a few taps and swipes, we ve drastically reduced our overhead costs. ~Director MET International

5 CHALLENGE #3 ORDER TRACKING CSR's have to visit multiple sources to track down order and shipping issues and resolve them. Once the order has been placed, your customer calls and asks about the status of an order and your staff struggles to track the order flow. They have to log into multiple portals to have real-time and historical reporting of order status. As a result of this challenge, you end up having to get back to your customers with the updated status and this delay results in unhappy customers venting those negative emotions and on social media, and by way of bad ratings and reviews. SOLUTION: As a business owner, you need to have a single window with one swipe real-time and historical reporting of order status, so that you can keep your customers satisfied. An automated order processing system can keep track of all activities related to the orders, identify potential delays and problems, monitor their deliveries, and also send notifications to your staff and your customers to keep them informed. Your staff will respond quickly with one click or swipe using an intuitive, time-saving platform. Having this kind of information available in one place is invaluable. ~VP of Operations Primetime Petz

6 CONCLUSION: A 2% error rate can mean 700 mis-shipped orders per year for a company that ships 100 orders per day. How much do order processing and fulfillment errors cost your company? A 2% error rate can mean 700 mis-shipped orders per year for a company that ships 100 orders per day. "Shipping technologies exist to help businesses of all sizes automate functions such as simplifying down to a few keystrokes the traditionally complex task of generating commercial invoices on international shipments," says Donna Longino, a UPS spokeswoman in a DC Velocity article titled "Six Steps to Cutting Your Parcel Shipping Costs. If you are a small business owner, your entire reputation depends on how fast and efficiently you fulfill your orders and satisfy your customers. Considering this, it becomes important for you to apply best of resources, planning and investment to leave no room for errors. A recent NY Times article, Why Small Businesses Fail To Grow, wrote, "the biggest differences between running a large company and a small one. Amassing the financial, technical and staff resources necessary to solve a technology problem." At Order Fulfillment by Cityon we understand the financial, technical and staff challenges facing small businesses. We ve developed a small business order processing and fulfillment system that works with existing back office systems to create a single-dashboard view of all orders enabling you to quickly and accurately respond to customer service requests. It also allows problems to be identified and rectified before the customer even becomes aware of them. References: Goltz, J. (2012, April 10). Why Small Businesses Fail To Grow. The New York Times. Retrieved from Solomon, M. (2011, Jan 5). Six Steps to Cutting Your Parcel Shipping Costs. DC Velocity. Retrieved from articles/ cutting_parcel_shipping_costs/

7 The Perfect Order...as Simple as a Few Taps And Swipes! Not sure if you re ready for sales order automation? Take the first step today and call us to setup a FREE "Possibilities Session. In that session we ll explore what challenges you and your top team are facing, what kind of results you d like to see instead, and whether this program could help or not. Whatever the outcome, you ll leave the conversation clear about the issues you re facing and excited about what s possible. Call , OFS@cityonsystems.com

8 The Perfect Order...as Simple as a Few Taps And Swipes!