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Customer Satisfaction and Keeping Pace With Sales

4 years ago
Rita K
1398

Customer satisfaction plays an important role within your business. Not only is it the leading indicator to measure customer loyalty, identify unhappy customers, reduce churn and increase revenue; it is also a key point of differentiation that helps you to attract new customers in competitive business environments.

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With that being said, let me tell you viewers a story about a man named … Fred. Ok, that’s not his real name, but this is his real story.

Fred and his brothers owned an Internet retail company that imported five categories of products from Asia and sold them on Amazon, eBay, Sears, and several other marketplaces and their own web stores. They had grown very quickly, because they had great products, an aggressive marketing plan and excellent pricing .

Unfortunately, their customer satisfaction levels were not keeping pace with their sales. Customers were unhappy and frustrated because the fulfillment processes in the company were substandard. Customers received the wrong products, double shipments, no shipments, late shipments, returns were mishandled delaying refunds, product descriptions weren’t always accurate and customer service personnel never seemed to know where the order was in the system or if it was shipped. The company was operating out of six warehouses, scattered across a large urban area. Inventory visibility was … well let’s just say it was more like inventory IN-visibility.  

Fred and his brothers are smart guys. They work very hard and have built a fast-growing, popular business. However, They realized that they were jeopardizing that business because their fulfillment execution was substandard.

Fred and his brothers knew he had to move into a single fulfillment center. The challenge was how to do that and avoid chaos. It was time to purchase new software to manage all of their processes and bring order to the fulfillment challenges.   Fred and his brothers searched for a well-integrated fulfillment execution system that managed channels, orders and fulfillment processes seamlessly and ensured information flow was instant and complete. Processes including item content uploading, order receipt, inventory-to-order confirmations, receiving, putaway, restocking primary bins, picking, packing and shipping all had to be automated and streamlined.

They found Avectous and the results have been extraordinarily positive.

The receiving team and the forklift operators were quickly trained to use the RF Scanners and they accurately received and putaway 18,000 pallets from the six warehouses plus offloading containers of new merchandise at the same time. They now have complete real time inventory visibility in the Avectous system.

Last month, the company received 200 containers from Asia. All inbound inventory was received accurately, promptly and orderly. Personnel were quickly trained on the new systems and guided through all processes using simple, convenient RFID hand-held scanners.   Putaway was simplified, inventory became instantly available, quantities were accurate, picking of orders was efficient, shipment was optimized, personnel were busy, but never overwhelmed and – most importantly – both customers and the primary sales channels i.e., Amazon, EBay were delighted with the speed, pick accuracy and tracking of the orders.

Products are being uploaded to marketplaces easily and accurately. Duplicate data entry has been eliminated. Employee morale has skyrocketed. Interface with suppliers has become significantly more cooperative. Inventory order planning has been systematized. Tracking orders to inventory and anticipating product trends has become predictable.

Order has been brought to chaos.

Fred and his brothers were wise. They brought in Avectous during the search for the new facility. Avectous has enormous experience in implementing complex fulfillment execution systems and was able to offer invaluable advice on racking, location address mapping, design, equipment, bar code systems, processes, personnel assignments and training. By working together as Fred and his brothers searched for a new fulfillment center and selected vendors for racking, forklifts, RFID equipment and everything else required to guaranty success for this critical development, their company was able to make better decisions, relying on the Avectous experience and expertise.

Avectous was with Fred and his brothers at every step. Unlike many software suppliers, Avectous personnel were “on the ground” with company personnel offering guidance, training and support throughout tine entire integration process. In addition to the assistance provided directly by Avectous, they were able to introduce suppliers of excellence – at extremely competitive prices – for a variety of critical components during the transition to the new facility.

Fred and his brothers recognized that their expertise was in buying, marketing and selling products on the Internet. They were wise enough to realize that fulfillment execution and the integration of sophisticated software with other operating processes used by the company necessitated a partnership with a highly experienced and responsive technology partner. Fred and his brothers were very concerned about value. The Avectous pricing was extremely competitive. However, what set Avectous apart from any competitive technology solution was their experience and availability. Avectous was there with Fred and his brothers every step of the way.

The company has never shipped more orders. The ratio of personnel to shipments has never been better. Operating profits are at all-time highs. Employee morale has skyrocketed. Both customer and sales channel compliance satisfaction levels have dramatically improved. Inventory to sales ratios have never been so good. None of the hundreds of hot sellers ever fall off the radar screen. Orders are placed with suppliers “just in time,” without risk of inventory shortages. Fred and his brothers can now proactively work on planning their growth, instead of worrying about reactively managing chaos on a daily basis.

Many companies tell horror stories about purchasing, implementing and integrating new software solutions. Fred and his brothers tell a different story. They tell a story of success and partnership. They tell the Avectous story.