In most cases, your customers come into contact with your ecommerce business at two points — when they shop your site to place an order and when they receive it. While the fact they made a purchase suggests you offered a good shopping experience, your reputation is actually made when they receive the order.
If there are delays, and/or the order is incomplete or inaccurate, it reflects badly upon your business. Problems of this sort can typically be traced to your order fulfillment function. If it’s too complex, you’re going to have issues. Streamlined shipping processes ensure customer satisfaction, which in turn, increase the likelihood of repeat business. These tips will help you simplify your fulfillment processes to minimize the potential for errors.
The shipping process actually begins the moment the order is placed. If you have automated order processing, your enterprise ecommerce software should produce a packing list. It should also be capable of informing the customer if the item is out of stock or there will be shipping delays for any other reason. Ask the customer to confirm their shipping address each time they check out to make sure you’re always dealing with the most current information.
Establish a cutoff time for each day’s orders and convey this information to your customers at the time of purchase so they know if they place an order after a certain hour it will ship the next day. Managing their delivery expectations in this fashion relieves them of potential anxiety. Plus, if it gets there earlier than they expected, you’ll be a hero.
Develop a standardized method for packaging your orders. Review your product portfolio and come up with a specific method for packing each item to minimize the potential for damage in transit. You also want it to show well when the customer opens it, so make sure your packaging allows the product to be viewed in its best light upon arrival.
Standardized packaging enables you to automate the weighing process, so you know what each product should weigh before it is packaged. This helps you set accurate shipping charges as well as gives you a checkpoint to look for as a red flag. If the list says the product should weigh two pounds but it weighs four, you’ll know something’s off somewhere. Similarly, insurance rates should be predetermined, so those values can be automatically applied.
Process all of your shipping together, as opposed to at random times or whenever an order comes in. Aggregating this activity enables you to focus on it specifically to help you make sure everything is accurate. Addresses and packing slips should be double checked again, to make sure the right product is going to the proper address.
In all likelihood, your carrier’s pickup occurs at the same time every day. Time yourself to get a gauge for how long it takes to process an individual order, multiply the timing by the average number of orders you have to process each day and time your efforts to end 30 minutes before the pickup time. This builds in a little extra room to deal with unforeseen circumstances and ensures all of the day’s orders get out on time.
These streamlined shipping processes ensure customer satisfaction issues related to shipping will be minimized. This, combined with providing a superior shopping experience and excellent customer service will ensure your enterprise a lifetime of repeat business.
