Christopher Moore — June 15, 2017 
Running a business that takes orders and arranges them for home delivery isn’t easy.
There are many stages of the process that can go wrong. One of the biggest challenges is creating a smooth fulfillment process that delivers your products to consumers with efficiency.
To improve your fulfillment process you need to invest time and energy into it.
Here is our guide on how to enhance your fulfillment process quickly and without spending a fortune.
1. Minimize Human Error
Today’s modern commerce world allows for consumers to buy products through various channels.
This makes it easy for your staff to make mistakes, especially if customers make numerous orders over various channels, you have customers with similar addresses & names, or products with similar names & descriptions.
So create a system where everything is broken down into unique and distinguishable codes and train staff to handle each order better so mistakes are not made.
2. Consolidate Information From Different Channels
With numerous sales channels open to your customers and the different ways they can amend orders, confusion can occur within your fulfillment service.
Imagine a customer makes an order online then calls up to make a change – if the two channels are not integrated then the wrong products could be sent out prior to the amendment being made.
Instead you need to integrate your systems so that all information is consolidated in real time.
3. Customizable Experiences
The personal touch is something that every customer really wants.
What you need to do is to apply this to your customers.
Offer various options and get customers to choose their delivery and any extra benefits they want.
Also your ordering system should allow your salespeople to apply customized discounts to the individual customer.
4. Increase Transparency
There aren’t many businesses that create a fully transparent system with their clients. Yet this will build trust with your customers, which is the foundation of the repeat customer.
Therefore, create an ordering system that produces more than just an invoice. Have an information point, a communications team and provide the latest information to the customer.
5. Motivate Staff
Staff is your biggest asset and greatest chance to improve your business.
Staff that are highly motivated work faster but this doesn’t mean that they have to be paid more as money has little impact on the effectiveness of staff.
Instead you need to consider what will really make your staff happy, whether this is different working hours or additional training.
Many of the best motivators don’t cost much to implement but can have such a positive impact on your staff’s production that you see a real return.
Improved team morale will also create a team where they care more about the customers’ orders. This increases their job efficiency and lowers the number of errors that occur.
6. Create The Order Flow And Share It
Every order needs to follow the same fulfillment path.
This helps your staff complete their roles more quickly and easily because the process should become second nature to the team.
7. Redesign Your Warehouse
Products ordered regularly should be placed close to the packing area and products that are often ordered together stored next to each other.
This helps to speed up the process of collection and packaging, decreasing the time it takes for your staff to complete the packaging of an order and to increase capacity.
Conclusion
Your fulfillment system is where the customer is served and making it as effective as possible will improve the customer’s experience.
The happier the customer is, the more they will order from you next time and the sooner that new order will come in. Overall, improve your fulfillment system by connecting highly motivated and trained staff with smooth processes and good communication.
- How are you going to improve your fulfillment system?
- What do your customers think of their experience?
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