If you are a small or medium-sized business owner, your company's growth is somewhat of a catch-22. Growth increases productivity and potential profit, but it could have the opposite effect on your business if you aren’t equipped to handle the growth. An order management system is software that automates order entry and processing and could be the solution to handling your increased workload.
Here are five signs that indicate an order management system is a wise investment for you:
You Don’t Have Enough Resources
Increased sales mean increased work, and that could mean longer hours for your staff or the need to add new staff and all the additional cost that entails. Investing in an online order management system could be less expensive than new staff, and it would take much of the workload off of your existing staff.
Mistakes Are Made In the Company's Books
Growth means more orders, more inventory, and more invoicing, which means more paperwork. Often this data must be manually entered multiple times, creating more chances for errors and mistakes to be made. An online order system automates much of the data entry and keeps everything synchronized, meaning multiple entries for the same data are unnecessary, and the data updates as changes are made. This cuts down on the potential for mistakes.
Customers Are Dissatisfied
Manually entering all the data and keeping track of inventory and orders is time-consuming enough when business is light. When business increases, it can become impossible to keep up. Confirming and fulfilling orders falls behind, and sales reps can’t get customer questions answered quickly. More time is spent looking for information than taking care of customer problems. The result is disgruntled employees and angry customers. An order system automates tracking and inventory records, and sales reps have immediate access to customer information. Customers are able to enter and check on orders themselves. Your employees are able to be more efficient and productive. Your sales reps are able to take care of clients quickly by themselves. Now your customers are happy and eager to do business with you.
Inventory Stock Is Not Accurate
Keeping too much inventory or running out of inventory can both affect your business’s bottom line. An order management system automates this, giving you real-time inventory status. It warns you when inventory is low, provides long-range estimates, and can automate re-orders to suppliers.
All Your Eggs Are In One Basket
This applies to two different issues:- You may wish to branch out and look into multiple sales channels, which makes accounting more complex and time-consuming. An online ordering system can manage all the channels from one central system simplifying record keeping.
- An order management system doesn’t call in sick or leave for another job. It’s a reliable resource that helps keep your company running smoothly and is on the job 24/7.
Using a system that integrates with QuickBooks gives you a reliable, around-the-clock way to use your resources in the most productive manner. It helps your business grow by increasing customer satisfaction and making your sales representatives more effective. Your employees can focus on duties that help your business grow instead of getting bogged down in manual entry paperwork. If your business is showing any of the warning signs above, look into an order management system now. Time is money, after all.
