Now that the holiday season is behind us, you can sit back and assess how well your order process worked. Was everything as smooth as it could be? Did shipments get to your customers on time and with limited errors? Was your fulfillment center able to get orders from you quickly and out the door with not too much effort? Could there have been better communication between your company and your third party fulfillment center (3PL)?
Not having the proper order processing software that can electronically send customer orders to the warehouse can lead to set backs and frustration from both sides, especially during peak business times.
Even if you work well with your fulfillment center and know they have the best infrastructure to deal with orders, if you don’t have the proper ordering software, it can strain your warehouse relationship. It's a situation you obviously don't want continuing into the new year if you're expecting major company growth in 2016.
Investing in order processing software that integrates with your 3PL can relieve many headaches for you and your staff. Read on to see some things that it can do.
Better Communication
Communication is the key to a smooth order and shipping process. Clear communication means orders get to a customer on time and error free. Communicating with them shouldn't have to rely strictly on phone and email. Calling them daily to manually transmit orders can take time away from other important projects. Or paying the fulfillment center to manually key in the orders can easily rack up charges that cut into profits.
Having proper communication through the ordering software you use helps get everyone on the same page without having to spend extra money or waste valuable time. Lack of communication can affect both you and your warehouses, particularly when something unexpected happens.
Automatic Order Entry
Finding order processing software that allows you, your sales reps and customers to enter in orders right into the system is the best way to improve accuracy. With warehouse integration you can then electronically send your orders right to the warehouse. This can save hours of processing time not to mention a reduction in errors.
When you employ ordering software that easily integrates with your shipping system and your accounting software like QuickBooks, you can finally have automatic order entry without mistakes. Just imagine how much time this saves in having to employ someone to enter orders, along with correcting embarrassing mistakes.
On the other end, your warehouse will appreciate having accurate info and not taking the brunt of the blame if ordering information isn't correct.
Shipping Dates, Costs, and Tracking Numbers
Communicating proper shipping dates and costs to your warehouse is essential so they can properly convey this information to your customers. Customers will also appreciate knowing when a product ships and the expected delivery date.
Your warehouses can work more efficiently knowing when shipping occurs and if back-orders become necessary. By properly sending tracking information as well, your fulfillment center won't get complaints from customers about when a product arrives.
Out of Stocks
It's inevitable you'll be out of stock on items from time to time, but properly conveying this to your warehouses is important. Again, they'd possibly get the blame if they don't properly communicate this to your customers that an item is out of stock.
Using order processing software, the order can be placed without the out of stock products to keep the shipping process fast and efficient. And customers can be notified prior to shipping that a product is out of stock, keeping everyone in the loop.
At Now Commerce, we've created an order processing software that solves all of the above warehouse communication issues. Visit us to see how we stand apart from other B2B order management software products on the market.