As we emerge from COVID-19, third-party logistics (3PL) warehouses face even more complex fulfillment needs for existing and potential clients. Ecommerce consumer demands for product delivered have moved to expect next-day/2-day delivery as default. 3PL warehouses are scrambling to update technology and find reliable labor.
All these changes are driving up the cost of doing business, and the need to pass those increases on to clients is becoming more urgent or these costs will eat at your bottom line. And of course, customers frequently balk at any hinted rate increase…many even threaten to take their business somewhere else.
Despite the rising costs and increased complexity, 3PL warehouses still want and need to grow. Here are a few ways your 3PL warehouse(s) can stand out and show additional value.
Customer visits are back. Dark, dingy, disorganized warehouses will reflect poorly on how you will manage your customer’s products.
Clean it up & keep it that way – Those “we’ll take care of it later” little piles of clutter grow quickly, spread, and multiply. Stay on top of the messes by walking around weekly and identifying eye sores with your team and make sure problems get handled appropriately. Make sure the product stored in warehouse racks looks well-kept without trash hanging off the pallets. Especially look for pallets that look like they may be sagging or breaking and get them replaced as product spills are costly on multiple levels.
Brighten it up – Advancements available in lighting systems will not only brighten your warehouse but can also reduce energy costs. Utilizing white paint will also help better bounce lighting around your warehouse and make for a cleaner and easier to work in environment. Check with your local government and utilities for tax rebates or partnering opportunities to share the cost.
Identify everything – Everywhere you store product should have a clearly defined human readable and barcoded location that can be referenced in your warehouse management system (WMS) to help more efficiently locate product and allocate orders. Use of generic locations names like floor need to be broken apart into smaller sections that are easy to reference when seeking product.
Strong relationships will often make the difference when a decision is being made. Even if you do lose a customer initially, that strong relationship will often bring them back.
Keep personal contact at the forefront whenever possible. Encourage your staff to pick up the phone and make the calls that will keep your customer feeling like you are part of their team.
Follow-up phone conversations with an email recap to ensure proper documentation and follow-ups.
Management and Sales teams should perform regular temperature checks and business reviews with clients to stay on top of how customers perceive your 3PL warehouse.
Leverage your WMS to free up your customer service team by:
The amount of time it takes to make product available for allocation to orders is key to clients as they seek to fulfill growing consumer expectations around delivering product faster. Outside of the yet to be fulfilled promised drone delivery armies, our reality is that many opportunities exist to optimize receipt, order fulfilment center, packaging, and label production when properly employed in your warehouse management system.
Electronic Document Interchange (EDI) is a way of moving orders and inbound transactional information between a 3PL warehouse and customers digitally. There are many methods of delivering and formatting this information, consult an expert to help analyze business needs before deployment of any electronic exchange process.
**Tip - Enable EDI or automatic e-mail notifications of receipt to further impress your customers with how quickly their product has been made available for orders.
**Tip – Enabling EDI, automatically emailing stock status, or notification of change options will help keep your customer up to date when adjustment occurs. Nightly or weekly inventory status updates automated from the WMS can help customers create an automated reconciliation process that more quickly exposes discrepancies between their system and yours.
**Tip – Enabling automatic notifications at ship will communicate important details like tracking numbers to your customer or even to the recipient. Helping your customer communicate information even faster to their customer, making you a rock star!
**Tip – using a properly configured mobile handheld unit can become the certification for many of your processes. Enhancing and sometimes replacing human double checks in this manner will help minimize errors.
For more information on how to impress customers and prepare for higher volume shipping times, download the Peak Season Playbook.