How and Why Your Efulfillment Services Failed You This Year

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Efulfillment Services

By now, the 2020 holidays came and went full swing. But there are still lingering sales to stay on top of, especially online. So, ask yourself, how did your business do this year? Did you make it through the holidays with ease and happy customers? Or are you still trying to pick up the pieces from a chaotic start to the holiday season?

Considering the year – one we are finally (and happily) saying goodbye to – your answers to these questions might be different than last year’s. You’ve had losses out of your control, you’ve had to adapt to a more online presence, maybe you’ve had to rearrange business logistics.

Despite what 2020 threw at you, though, there are always ways to push forward and improve your efulfillment services.

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2020 has made the online presence even more valuable

This year, efulfillment services didn’t joke around – they became an essential way to continue getting the things we wanted and needed despite the circumstances.

Yet some of the most commonplace errors happened more frequently this year, as the influx of online orders skyrocketed. Although it was hard to be prepared for a year like this one, it teaches a valuable lesson on being prepared and flexible for whatever might come.

Being prepared is vital to execute every step of the efulfillment chain as planned. So, this year, many unprepared businesses were in way over their heads:

• Customer service representatives weren’t prepared for the increase in the volume of incoming calls, leaving customers waiting too long to speak to someone other than an automated voice. With an inadequate ratio of representatives to callers, many customers never got in touch with a knowledgeable employee to answer their questions and concerns.
• Companies were ill-equipped in the order and warehousing department, leaving customer inventory unorganized. As a result, customers received wrong orders, messy orders, even broken orders and orders with missing pieces. Although much of this might have been out of your control this year, nothing is more frustrating to a customer than waiting excitedly for your order, only for it to show up wrong.
• With the beginning stages of the logistics chain wildly unprepared, delivery services suffered. Again, many factors fell out from under your realm of control, but were the holidays messy? Did packages get stuck, lost, or deliver after the special day was already over?

The first step to becoming better is this: grade your current efulfillment services partner. 

In order to avoid more mix-ups in 2021, you’ve got to choose the right fulfillment partner that complements you.

• Do they care about your customers as if they were their own? They should.
• Are they willing to go above and beyond for you, staying up to date on all of your products and always willing to learn more? They should.
• Are the employees professional, kind, and knowledgeable? They should be.
• And do their warehouses boast the most advanced safety and technology, ensuring every single product is protected and in place? They should.

Interested in learning more? Give us a call, we’d love to chat.