The simplicity and efficiency of your order management is critical to keeping your customers happy and working in a way that significantly increases the productivity in your business. For this reason today we are going to take a look at some order management solution ideas which can help your business deliver better to its customers. The key in most cases is making this aspect of your business as simple as you possibly can, both for your employees and for your customers.
Let’s take a look then at some easy steps which you could take to ensure that you have an order management system which is firing on all cylinders.
Getting Your Employees On Board
Getting your employees on board here is critical and that is because of the fact that it is them who are going to be operating this system. It is all well and good bringing in a new system, but if you are not prepared to bring your employees in on the conversation then you will be giving yourself an uphill struggle. Invest the time in making sure that your staff fully understand all ends of the order management system.
Inventory to Order System
If you do not currently have an order system which is synced to your live inventory then you are going to be opening yourself up to a lot of risk. The last thing which a customer wants, either online or in person, is to try and buy something only to be later told that it is not in stock. This is why it is essential that you have both of these systems communicating with each other, so that the customer will have real time information when they need it most.
Automate
The only manual activities which your business should be involved in with regards to the order management system is in the counting of stock and the accounting for waste and shrinkage. Beyond this you must endeavor to automate as much of the process as you possibly can, because this is going to greatly increase the accuracy of how the system operates. From booking in inventory to taking orders, picking and shipping, the more of this which can be automated the better the customer and the staff experience is going to be.
Making It Useful For Your Customer
If you are using an order management system for an E-commerce business then you need to ensure that it is useful to the customer. What this means is that they can shop out of hours, they can track and view their order history and the status of their live orders, and that they are able to do all of this in a simple online portal. Customers do not want to have to wait to speak to a customer service agent, and you shouldn’t make them. The key is offering them control over their orders.
These simple tweaks will have a big difference on how satisfied the customer is, and how productive your staff are.