One of the biggest problems for B2B companies is dealing with data entry errors. You're perhaps one B2B business that still uses antiquated wholesale order management software requiring manual data entry to get financial information coordinated.
For your fulfillment center, this can lead to vast confusion, especially when they have to call you to see why you have discrepancies on record.
When they're forced to do this, it only leads to less productivity and more downtime. As a result, it brings potential money losses since it could take weeks to hunt down an error and correct it.
It's time for you to update your wholesale order management software so you can avoid manual data entry. Even if it provides work for data entry operators, many who do those jobs have thankless tasks. You may want to upgrade those employees to something better after years of them having to worry about making mistakes.
But what kind of errors might you see that could affect things? Here are some examples, plus how better software using automation and the cloud immediately changes things.
The 1% Error Rate Problem
Statistics show that within all data entry, 1% of it is going to contain an error. Basically, one out of every 100 data pieces are likely to have a mistake, which can cause a major problem on not only for you, but your fulfillment center as well.
Just one small error for delivery to your most loyal buyers could result in tarnishing your reputation. The fact that your fulfillment center has to take the brunt of this criticism only lessens the trust you've developed working with your partner.
You don't want finger-pointing to occur when mistakes take place. You need to use an automated system to get information placed into a more centralized database.
Mistakes in Shipping Dates
The best wholesale order management software takes shipping information and automatically enters it into financial software like QuickBooks for easy organization and retrieval. Shipping dates can easily get confused if someone has to enter these into a computer by hand.
At risk are common manual data entry errors: Reversing a month and day, or accidentally typing a surrounding number on the keyboard. Having a shipping date even one day off could result in a business customer losing money because your product arrived late. This could occur simply because you didn't catch the error until after it shipped.
Mistakes in Shipping Quantities
Your data entry operators might also type the wrong number on product quantities. As a result, it could mean you accidentally shipping several products when the buyer only wanted one. Or, the reverse could happen and only one product gets sent when the buyer bought in bulk.
Automation sets the quantity level through one-click ordering. Through a customer portal, the buyer can see what they ordered so they don't have to do second-guesses.
Mistakes in Shipping Costs
Businesses don't want to pay more for shipping, just because a data entry error happened. While you can credit their account, it takes time for these to occur and becomes a major embarrassment in the process.
Never rely on data entry operators to enter shipping costs, because major gaffes here may become overly time-consuming. When shipping costs get automatically entered into QuickBooks, it also goes to the customer portal so buyers see exactly what they're paying without having to email you to confirm.
Mistakes in Tracking Numbers
It's equally important to avoid manual entry for tracking numbers, because these are always complex with long lines of numbers and letters. One character off may lead to a dead-end for a buyer who wants to check in on their order to see when it arrives.
Quality ordering software sends this information again to the customer portal so the buyer can check in 24/7 to confirm their ordering status.
Visit us at Now Commerce to learn about our wholesale order management software that can finally let you enjoy reliable automation and end the redundant data entry era.
