As a building supply distributor, your clients depend on you to complete projects on time. When materials are delayed, construction crews are left sitting on a jobsite while the foreperson scrambles to rearrange the day’s workload, which costs time and money.
Some delays are out of your control. Others can be eliminated simply by fixing common order processing issues. Order processing automation can make the difference between delivering supplies on time and leaving your clients stranded.
The High Cost of Order Processing Issues
Time is of the essence in commercial construction, and what may seem like a simple issue can quickly snowball into a big problem. Mistakes with order entries, inaccurate inventory data, and poor communication can delay shipments, which keeps your clients from completing their work.
Every time you have to correct a shipping error, you lose money. You have to pay to ship the same order twice and absorb the restocking costs. Late and inaccurate orders also erode your customer confidence. If you make too many errors, you could accidentally drive business to your competition.
Fortunately, you can easily solve many common order processing issues.
1. Manual Data Entry
Manual data entry is tedious and repetitive. When your human customer service team is entering data into a system all day, it’s easy for the team to lose focus and zone out or get distracted. Human errors such as entering an incorrect SKU or duplicating an order can be costly to fix.
Automating your order processing increases your speed and efficiency by reducing keystrokes. Using a system that automatically validates order data also adds a layer of quality control. You reduce the risk of data entry errors and deliver the right merchandise on time.
2. Poor Communication Between Systems
Successful order fulfillment requires clear communication. Your customer service team and your warehouse team should be using the same data. When your enterprise resource planning software doesn’t communicate with your customer relationship management software and warehouse management software, you end up with data gaps.
Integrated systems can fill these gaps and keep your teams from working in silos. For example, when your customer service team enters an order, an integrated warehouse management system will automatically update your inventory levels. Your warehouse manager knows when to order more inventory, and your customer service team won’t accidentally sell an item that’s unavailable or backordered.
3. Lack of Real-Time Visibility
Manually entering order information into various management systems delays your ability to track an order. Depending on your order volume and backlog, it could be days before your warehouse managers send the right shipping information to your customer service representatives.
Your customers spend that time wondering about the status of their order. Some of them may call multiple times before you finally have their tracking information.
WorldView’s AP order acknowledgment automation and other solutions match purchase orders with acknowledgments in seconds and notify your customers. Your clients and your customer service team can track orders in real time. Your customers can plan their own workflows, and your representatives can quickly answer any questions with accurate data.
4. Returns and RMAs
Returns are inevitable in any industry, including building supply distribution. Relying on disorganized procedures to manage returns means it usually takes longer to issue customer credits. It also wastes your inventory.
You may end up paying holding costs for extra inventory sitting in a warehouse. You also have to wait for people to inspect and repackage any returned inventory.
WorldView’s RMA automation tools give you a standard form for return requests and automatically route them to the correct team member. You can process the return and issue credit faster, which satisfies your customer. If the returned merchandise passes your inspection, you can then resell it faster.
5. Inefficient Invoice and Acknowledgment Flows
Relying on paper invoices is time-consuming and ineffective. These often sit on someone’s desk for days, waiting for approval from multiple parties. Your payments are delayed, which can disrupt your cash flow.
AP workflow automation speeds up the approval process. When a customer places an order, the system immediately acknowledges it and generates an invoice. The system then routes any exceptions so you can correct and resubmit the invoice.
Your accounts payable team doesn’t have to spend time manually entering data into the system. You get paid faster, and you have an audit trail.
Fixing the Foundation
Relying on outdated order processing and management systems is likely costing you time and money. Using the right software to improve your order processing reduces many of the most common issues you may face. This ripples across your business to improve your profitability.
With fewer order errors and delays, you enhance your reputation as a trusted building materials supplier. Your customers learn to count on you to deliver each order correctly and on time. You don’t have to spend time and money fixing incorrect orders or paying holding costs for excess inventory.
Your team can also work more efficiently. Instead of spending hours on repetitive tasks, everyone can focus on the activities that add value to your organization, such as problem-solving and improving the customer experience.
WorldView offers enterprise content management and other flexible solutions that can integrate with your existing infrastructure to improve your order processing and visibility.
Let’s talk. Contact us today.
