There may be times when the cracks start to show in your business and you aren’t providing or receiving the best services possible. One area where this may happen is your supply chain services. If your partners are starting to display problems, they need to be addressed immediately.
Recently, Target Canada revealed that since its inception, there have been problems with its supply chain companies.
It’s a concept used often by fast food restaurants: offering reduced prices for a combo. The logic is simple; the more items you buy together, the more you save.
Product fulfillment companies already use this model in the form of kitting services, where they place a bunch of materials into one package and send it to clients. Not only is kitting not as much work as you might think, but it can both save and make you a ton of money.
Products are always on the move, which means things will go wrong along the way. This could be a defect in its production at the factory, an organic component expiring, or damage while being shipped.
In product fulfillment, successful delivery of products is the lifeblood of a business. That’s why if a client orders something and it turns up damaged, you can bet there will be a complaint. And if that happens, it’s up to you to rectify it.
Dealing with damaged and defective products begins and ends with your shipping and logistics solutions. Based on these, your business will either have to mitigate the problem itself or pass the problem off to a third party.
Proper order fulfillment and a good processing system that provides order confirmations and invoices are necessities. With today’s reliance on digital media, electronic invoices and/or receipts sent to clients via e-mail are the ideal forms of shipping confirmation. Clients should also be provided with tracking information so they can keep tabs on where their product is, even if you are using mailing fulfillment services.
It also helps to have some sort of insurance policy prepared for when products get lost, stolen, or damaged while in transit. A lot of businesses include this as a mandatory part of their service fees while others make it optional.
When it comes to other damage or errors, sometimes you’ll have no choice but to fix the problem on your own. For example, if there were issues with your kitting assembly and a client didn’t get what they were supposed to, send it to them with an extra gift, such as coupons, as compensation and to apologize for the error. And if the product is damaged once they receive it, be ready to have it sent back for inspection and have the means to refund fees quickly.
In fact, giving the clients options on how they want to have products shipped, including the aforementioned optional insurance, is a good way to properly handle any damage that could happen. Also, by placing the decision in the hands of the client, less blame can be placed on your business if there are any problems.
Bad things can happen and products can get broken mid-delivery, but you can overcome this by working out your shipping methods for product fulfillment in advance.
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 their web site at www.apsfulfillment.com, or phone at (954) 582-7450.
With a New Year upon us, it’s time for a fresh start for your business. However, your ability to implement changes may be limited by what you can do on your own. In a lot of cases, you’re going to need more help.
But you’re not foolish—you want the best help you can get. However, there is assistance for hire out there that might not be what they say they are, yet still want to charge you huge fees for their services. That’s why, when considering help, you need to do some serious analysis, both of your business and of potential hires.
There’s nothing better than having options. It’s hard to believe that even within the last half century, there were places where you could only purchase one kind of food or drink due to government restrictions, or that you had to commit yourself to particular social norms because tradition forced you to. It’s nice to be able to make decisions based on the options that are available to us all and proceed accordingly, knowing we had the opportunity to think things through clearly.
When you see people out and about, it’s pretty apparent that they want more. Whether it’s at the buffet restaurant or bargaining with a car salesman, people want to get the most they can with the resources they have. Are they greedy? Perhaps some are, but most just want to have options to get what they need at a reasonable price. The more choices they have, the better they’re able to find what they need at a price they can afford.
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