Why We’ve Become a Top Fulfillment Company
How Did USA Fulfillment Become A Top Fulfillment Company?
Top Fulfillment Companies Continually Walk The Path of Improvement.
Here are thoughts on how WE delivered this past holiday season.
In previous blogs, we talked about preparation for the holiday season, the do’s and the don’ts based on Best Practices at top fulfillment companies. How did YOUR order fulfillment company make out? Did they #Fail or was Holiday 2016 full of #Joy!?
Here’s how the holiday played out at USA Fulfillment in 2016.
President BJ Collier finally takes a break, sitting down at her desk. She opened the door to her office at 6am, but had not been back there until now, 10 hours later. “This year was unprecedented”, Mrs. Collier comments, “and our team did a phenomenal job of handling the volume”.
As a top fulfillment company, USA begins holiday planning in January of every year. What were the things we did best during this holiday season? What were the things we need to improve? Was our staff stretched too thin or did we have adequate coverage during each shift? How can we improve the process for next year? “Each year we find better solutions to meet our client demands, better methods for recruiting, and better ways to motivate our staff in the face of the crazy volume!”, exclaims Mrs. Collier.
Armed with a list of actionable items for the next year, USA reaches out to clients as early as July for preliminary holiday forecasts.
- Will hiring 50 seasonal staff work this year or will we need more?
- Do we need to allocate additional space or resources?
These questions can begin to be answered once the forecasts come in. And with those forecasts, the seasonal plan comes to fruition. But what happens when all that planning is a far cry from the actual…
In 2016, our client forecasts were prepared for holiday season. As a top fulfillment company, we typical plan for 25% of the annual orders to be shipped during the six weeks prior to Christmas, with a high percentage of those during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday week. We always make sure we can flex our staffing to increase by 20%, should projections be too low.
With all the best planning, our clients hit an unprecedented increase of 33% in order volume and 28% in call volume!!
When orders are so much higher than expected, inventory shortages happen. Replenishments need to be completed much earlier than anticipated, which means round the clock help. More communications with the parcel and trucking companies to have available trailers and pickups. More coffee brewing…
But when you have a plan, you can execute. And our team executed beautifully. Packages shipped within the contracted service levels, orders were filled accurately, and damages were minimal. Calls were answered within the contracted service levels and customers were satisfied, as was shown in an onslaught of unsolicited praise for our agents! When you partner with a high touch provider, our #1 mission is to please your customer, and creating a win-win relationship with you, the Client. Your success is our success, so we partner with the best. Did your brand experience this same holiday season love?
