Order Fulfillment Companies: Watch Out!

Pitfalls of Order Fulfillment Companies

Order Fulfillment companies are great! They are an excellent way to outsource your packing and shipping hassles and let someone else handle those tedious tasks. They can boost customer satisfaction, grow your customer base, increase profits, and leave you with one less thing to stress about. BUT, not everyone can be trusted. What kinds of things do you need to look out for in the world of order fulfillment? What are the pitfalls of making a decision that so much of your company rests on?

Order Fulfillment Companies: Watch Out!

Like I said before, orderfulfillment companies can be great. But they can also be bad. Very, very bad. Before making the hasty decision of allowing one company to store, pack, process, and ship all of your inventory, let’s make sure you know what to look out for. Here’s a few pitfalls to avoid:

1. The order fulfillment company makes wild promises to you about doubling your company’s size in one year. Okay, okay, maybe their promises aren’t that big, but you get the picture. You need to keep things in perspective. Sure, a fulfillment company can help you out and reduce a lot of stress, but it is still up to you, the business owner, to make sure things are running the way you want them to.

2. The company has no clear system of operations in place. Ask to see it! Ask the manager what they do and then ask if you can observe the process for a little bit. I can tell you right now that if the person who packages the boxes is bringing his portable television and grandma’s cookies around with him all day, your money is not being well spent.

3. The company refuses to provide data sheets. Likely, you want run into this much with order fulfillment companies, since data processing is a lot of what they do, but if they are lazy and just don’t want to do it, beware! You need to be in the know of your inventory, order processing, returns, etc. You absolutely should request those data sheets in your hands at least once each month. If the company refuses this, you should refuse their service.

Hopefully these three pitfalls will be helpful hints as to what to look out for when you are looking for a way to outsource some of your day-to-day business duties.