Strategies for Enhancing Order Processing Within a Business
The number of customers is constantly growing. At some point, business owners cannot meet market demands and they need to reevaluate their order processing strategies. So, how to make order processing capable of receiving and processing a large number of customer requests?
In order to avoid potential order fulfillment delays, these management systems should be enhanced regularly. Some companies believe that increasing their warehouse spaces can speed up order fulfillment. However, others would rather choose to have more products in stock to cope with order fulfillment more efficiently. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
We are going to help you identify all potential problems you may face in this process. If you want to reach and serve more customers, feel free to implement the strategies from our article.
What is Order Management System (OMS)?
An order management system handles several processes – receiving, fulfilling, and tracking customer orders. In other words, the system is a connection between a user and a business. The process starts with placing an order and ends with receiving the package.
Some businesses still have manual ordering systems relying on paper and pen. Today, this form is outdated and unsustainable because of the large number of customer requests waiting to be served.
Every order management system should be able to deal with the following tasks:
Receiving customer orders
Fulfilling customer orders (picking, packing, shipping)
Handling after-sale processes
This way, a business owner can view and manage all customer orders in one place. From pressing the "buy" button to delivering a package, workers can track the entire process.
In order for customers to receive the ordered items on time and in good condition, the system should handle inventory control, order shipment, and product returns. Among all, these are the fields of the order management system that can be improved.
Order Management vs. Order Processing
While an order management system covers a range of actions necessary for supporting all sale stages, order processing ensures customer orders are correctly received and executed.
Precisely, order processing is one significant component of the order management system since it has the power to speed up order fulfillment. It can be performed manually or digitally.
In general, all modern order processing systems are automated where all data, inventory, customer profiles, and tasks are processed by specialized software.
The main advantages of automated order processing are:
Improved customer experience
Faster order fulfillment
Improved order tracking process
Scalable software
Strategies for Enhancing Order Processing
Gaining More Control Over Your Inventory
On one hand, a well-stocked warehouse can be a good thing. However, on the other hand, having a warehouse fitted with one type of product can be tricky. Markets are unpredictable, so if you have purchased a certain amount of products, it can potentially ruin your business plans.
For instance, if the market shifts unpredictably, which is completely normal, your customers will demand different sorts of products. In this case, you can get these new items and the problem could be solved. But what will you do with the existing ones? Where will you place the new goods?
More control over your inventory can help you have enough room in your warehouse for both popular items and the new ones demanded by the current market trends, including roofing services. The reorder point formula or ROP helps you calculate the minimum amount of inventory to avoid running out of it.
Implementing Order Statues into Your System
When your customer orders an item, they actually send a request to your website server. The order will change several statuses until is delivered to the final address. During this process, users can receive automatic email notifications about the status of the order.
These are the most common order management statuses:
Pending - Once an order is created, it gets the status “pending”. In this case, administrators have not yet taken the request for further processing. If you want to avoid customer complaints, the order should not have this status for more than two days.
In progress - Administrators have taken the user request and are checking the ordered product's availability. If the product is out of stock, the customer receives a notification about it.
Sent - when the order has been delivered to the courier service, it gets the "sent" status. Users can expect delivery at their addresses soon.
Suspended - The main reasons for the “suspended” status are the unavailability of the ordered product, slow order processing, or the customer's withdrawal.
Making the System Easier for Customers
If you have a cloud-based solution, make sure to provide your customers with the best possible experience. In order to increase customer satisfaction to a higher level, consider implementing the following features into the system.
Searching tools - They help your customers narrow down their search results and speed up the process of finding and ordering items.
Placing an order - Although it is obvious that your order management system has this functionality, make sure it is placed in a visible place.
Checking the status of orders - In order to gain the trust of your customers, you should be completely transparent. So, once they order an item, they should receive its status.
Conclusion
An order management system allows you to receive, track and fulfill orders. We hope that these strategies helped you in making it more efficient and easy to use.
If you want to make your system capable of fulfilling a large number of orders, consider implementing a modern automated system. Instead of paper and pen, use the software.
Keep in mind that transparency is a key factor in gaining the trust of customers. Thus, make sure they are informed about the each status of an order.
Additionally, take advantage of the reorder point formula (ROP) to gain more control over your inventory to make sure your customers receive their packages on time.