Whatever the size of your business, growth is crucial to your success. You may be considering expanding your operations to reach customers nationwide or even across the globe. However, any successful business leader knows that expanding too fast without first implementing seamless logistics often leads to disaster, even for successful companies. If you can’t keep up with deliveries, your company’s brand and image could come away permanently tarnished due to poor customer service.
If you are having difficulty keeping up with orders, partnering up with an order fulfillment company could be a way to do so. They can store products, accept placed orders, pick orders from inventory, and ship them to customers. However, some logistics companies will want to ship orders out as fast as possible and will miss important steps that are important to customer satisfaction. To grow consistently, you need to work with logistics companies that have an impeccable reputation.
Quality Management Starts With You
Quality management involves overseeing all of the tasks that must be completed in order to deliver the level of excellence your customers expect. To maintain quality, you should establish a policy for accomplishing these steps and a quality assurance plan to ensure nothing is overlooked in the process. Even when working with shipping fulfillment firms, quality management always starts with you: the manufacturer. Partnering up with the best logistics firm should not change the quality of your products.
An effective quality management system on your end will help:
- Improve customer satisfaction
- Increase efficiency in your operations
- Achieve greater consistency in order fulfillment
- Improve your products and processes continuously
- Market your business effectively and ventures into new markets
During the COVID-19 crisis, quality is the last thing a business can afford to sacrifice, especially for those that are online. While times may have changed, your loyal customers expect the same superior quality they have always counted on. Even a minor compromise in product quality can lead to decreased sales and a damaged reputation.
How Logistics Can Affect Quality Management
If you are using a logistics service that has poor customer service, the customer’s experience will be reflected on you and not on the logistics company. On the other hand, if the company offers amazing services in the fulfillment process, that will result in a positive reflection of your business. But how exactly can a logistics service improve quality management?
Controlled Costs
Hiring and training staff for freight logistics takes a lot of valuable time and resources. Order fulfillment firms enable you to avoid the expenses that come with hiring your own team. You don’t even need to buy your own fleet of vehicles or purchase or lease facilities for warehouse space. The logistics firm will take care of everything and you’ll only pay for what you use.
Accuracy
There is nothing that damages your reputation more than delivering the wrong order to a customer. Dedicated logistics specialists have more experience in the supply chain and are always updating and implementing the best practices to improve accuracy. They have logistics automation processes such as freight tracking, auto-pickup, and freight accounting, allowing them to fulfill orders in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. This offers a key advantage over in-house supply chains.
Procedure Consistency
Customers want to be certain that their product will arrive within a specified period of time and in perfect condition. This is a very hard thing to do when you have to juggle both manufacturing and logistics yourself. Most logistics firms have quality assurance departments committed to monitoring the company’s processes. This leads to more overall efficiency and consistency in order fulfillment, which will provide for a better customer experience.
Speed
Many business owners have realized that they can reduce delivery time by working with centers that offer both transportation and warehousing solutions. Partnering with these companies improves delivery time dramatically because they already have an established network and reliable delivery procedures. Faster product delivery leads to improved customer satisfaction.
Customer Service Communications
Experienced logistic professionals will take the burden of product delivery and customer relations off your shoulders. These companies have an in-house team that’s committed to delivering fast, clear, and responsive customer service. Reliable customer communication is crucial to maintaining quality management and a great client experience.
Returns or Exchanges
Order fulfillment companies help create effective and well-organized logistics for your operation. In return, you get a supply chain that helps your business gain a distinct advantage over your competition. The logistics partner you work with should be able to guarantee accurate and swift returns and exchanges for consumers. This helps maintain quality management and a happy customer experience.
Technology
One of the best advantages offered by logistics partners is access to leading-edge technology to coordinate the seller’s supply chains. The tools include collaborative transportation management systems, tracking software, and EDI/data transfer. Advanced technology can help the partner see problems before they happen. They also help with strategizing, monitoring procedures, and providing the best possible customer experience.
An Effective Logistics Partner Cares About Quality Management
Partnering with a logistics provider can help enhance quality management with cost savings, consistency, and positive customer interactions. Ship My Orders has real agents in the warehouse location to answer calls and change orders for your customers. Our team is quick, responsive, accurate, and focused on quality management and following procedures so that your customers have an excellent experience every time they order. Contact Ship My Orders today for more information on how we can improve your business.