You’ve likely experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly in customer service. There are those product fulfillment professionals who deliver the good customer service that makes you want to come back for more, those who deliver lukewarm-to-tepid customer service, and then those who don’t care and just manage to stagger through their jobs half-heartedly. Obviously, the first is the role model to follow, but a lot of the time, product fulfillment never manages to get client services under their belts quite right.
If you are one of the pros who never fully mastered customer service, there’s no shame in admitting it. In fact, a lot of product fulfillment pros think they are doing a good job because they manage to bring in some money. But their images of themselves are just that: images, all for show. Fortunately, you really care and want to improve your business to better please your customers, which is earnest and can lead to real success later on.
Product fulfillment is, above all, a customer-centric business. Everything you do, from creating the right content for sales material or rush delivering a product to a client who needs it for a belated gift, for example, are all job-related duties revolving around product fulfillment. This has to be understood and impressed upon one’s brain right from the get-go.
Being customer-centric in product fulfillment means being on guard in a three-fold scenario. You have to be ready to continually unveil your wares to the public, you have to be ready to process transactions, and you have to make sure they get their products as agreed upon. It sounds simple, and in theory it is, but do request some customer feedback along the way—there is nothing wrong with improving your client service techniques.
All for One
Some product fulfillment pros view customer service as an us v. them situation; these pros feel that they have to pay servitude to clients, often begrudgingly, in order to bring in the green. But this is the wrong approach to take. Good customer service in product fulfillment is about loyalty and satisfaction—keeping your clients loyal to your business by providing satisfying services. So really, there’s no need to grovel at all.
Your objective in product fulfillment should be customer loyalty. That means getting your clients to become part of your business as they would with a private club or association. Anyone can drive to the mall to buy whatever they want—but there’s no magic to that. Product fulfillment allows today’s consumers to still be a part of something that will allow them to get what they want while having access to things they can’t get anywhere else.
Creating loyalty and satisfaction in product fulfillment can involve lots of different efforts including: creating discounts for special groups of clients; offering promotions to clients that use specific services such as online or mail orders exclusively; or creating a certain consumer group within your business where members can have all of these accoutrements as part of your special product fulfillment group, no different than a fan club or group membership. In creating a great client-business relationship, you are creating an all-for-one environment that can be as much fun as it is profitable.
Giving Them a Voice
If you truly care about your customers, you can do one simple thing to get information that will improve your client services: get them involved. Pure and simple. By allowing for customer feedback and input from those who buy your products, you are showing that you care about them enough to want to improve your business around their wants and needs.
Send out a survey. Have clients complete a customer scorecard. Offer a promotion via a contest for clients who make great suggestions to improve your business. In a world that is often seen as sterile and impersonal thanks to digital media, product fulfillment pros can fill that gap by getting clients involved in their business, making improvements, and enjoying great business relationships—all in one great package.
Need solutions to your product fulfillment problems? APS Fulfillment, Inc has the knowledge and services to make your direct mail and product fulfillment ventures more successful. Contact APS Fulfillment, Inc by e-mail at [email protected], visit its web site at www.apsfulfillment.com, or call (954) 582-7450.
