Wholesalers often take an approach of figuring out how to handle needs as they arise. Unfortunately, after several years in business, this results in a cumbersome and piecemeal variety of methods for doing the same basic thing. For example, a company may start out taking orders over the phone and simply hand-writing them onto invoices. Then, they realize that it's time to have an outside sales force. The outside salespeople, having no direct access to the office, are forced to call in their orders and wait in the calling queue as their customers impatiently wait.
Next, the company might decide that it's time to speed things up, so they give the salespeople a fax number to use when on the road. Now, the company has to handle both phone and fax orders. Finally, some customers may use an Excel spreadsheet and e-mail orders in. This brings in a third format to deal with. And it can be different for each customer.
As can be guessed, all of these different order formats soon become hard to deal with. Delays and errors creep in as papers get lost or Excel data becomes corrupted. Faxes, once considered cutting edge, now mark the company as behind the times. It's clearly time to start modernizing the wholesale sales process at your company.
Unifying Order Formats Reduces Errors
Modernizing your wholesale order process by integrating order management software with your accounting software, like QuickBooks, allows you to get rid of all of these separate order-taking systems. Instead of dealing with handwritten orders, typed orders, faxes, and e-mailed Excel spreadsheets, you'll have just one interface to handle. This will standardize the incoming orders so that they can be instantly understood and quickly processed - no matter which channel they come through.
With this new, modern system, everyone gains access to the appropriate part of the order-entering process. Inside staff can be logged into the system from the computers at the desk. Outside sales staff will be able to log in from their laptops or smartphones. Even customers will be able to log into individual customer accounts to place orders. With the right order management software, orders entered into the system will then automatically sync to QuickBooks without having to be rekeyed. This will heavily reduce confusion and errors speeding up the order process.
Using a Single System Speeds Processing
One of the problems with old systems is that they make it harder to transfer orders from one department to the next. This is an especially big problem with paper-based systems. With them, a new slip may need to be generated for each stage of the order-taking and fulfillment process. This is slow and presents an opportunity for errors to creep in at each reprinting. Eliminate these problems by switching to a unified system. With an order management solution, an order is available to your entire organization as soon as it's entered. Updating it is as simple as logging on and making the appropriate changes.
Modernization Impresses Customers and Increases Sales
Having a quick, unified, computerized order-taking process helps to convince customers that your company is ready to meet all of the challenges of today's business climate. Conversely, if customers see your sales reps taking out pens and papers, asking to use their fax machines (which they may not even have anymore), and otherwise using obsolete methods, they'll get the impression that your business is obsolete. It goes without saying that it's best to seem modern and nimble!
Upgrading to a unified system that can be accessed over the internet will immediately give the impression that your company can truly meet a customer’s needs. To learn more about how customer order management software can help streamline your internal processes, reduce error rates, increase your sales, and improve your customer satisfaction ratings, just contact Now Commerce. We'll be glad to show you everything you need to know.
