When working in a complex, hectic environment like an e-commerce retailer or a large national manufacturing company, you recognize that there will be disruptions to “business as usual” that crop up from time to time. We might call them hiccups, snafus, or simply miscommunications, and they vary widely in importance. It’s just the nature of working with other human beings that these disruptions will occur, and hopefully we are able to iron them out quickly and minimize how often they happen.

In a relationship with a third-party service provider, those miscommunications often have two features that can make them more important than the same type of miscommunications that happen within the company. First, they are more common, since working with people in a different company creates more opportunity for miscommunication than working with people who work in the same building or even the same cubicle as you.

Second, those miscommunications usually have larger effects and can greatly impact the relationship that the company has with its customers, whether they are B2B or B2C customers. For that reason, it’s critical to minimize those errors and eliminate them whenever possible. Here’s how Spectra works hard to help clients enjoy great, reliable fulfillment services and actually improve their relationships with their customers.

Rigorous Accuracy Checks

Certainly the biggest potential issue with a third-party fulfillment provider that could harm the relationship between the client and their customers is inaccurate order fulfillment. If the customer places an order and they receive the wrong products–or even worse, if they never receive their order at all due to address mistakes–the client is the one whom the customer will see as responsible. 

Partnering with a fulfillment provider means trusting that provider to protect their relationships with customers. At Spectra, we take that trust very seriously, and use a number of different methods to ensure the accuracy of every shipment that goes out the door. From visually checking each other’s work to verifying that all the correct items are in a box before sealing it, we give your customers the same careful attention that your own in-house fulfillment department would give them. 

Inventory Updates

Sending emails to your fulfillment partner to inquire about current inventory eats up time, and in today’s environment, it’s an extra step you should not have to take. Clients of Spectra enjoy access to an online portal that is available any time and updated constantly with real-time inventory counts. Whenever you need to know how many of a SKU are in stock right now, how many have sold in the past week, or how customer demand has changed over a longer period of time, you can pull that information up in seconds without waiting for someone to look it up for you and send you the answer. 

Fulfillment clients of Spectra find that the online portal system gives them unprecedented access to metrics that they can use to make better business decisions than ever before. With this data available all the time, in real time, project managers can make more informed decisions and maximize their organization’s capital.

Value Added Services

If you’ve ever made an unusual request related to the handling of your inventory, you’ve probably gotten one of two different answers. The first is a simple “No,” due to the provider’s internal policies, lack of manpower, or lack of willingness to add complication to the process of moving items into the warehouse and then shipping them out when ordered.

The other possible answer is a “Yes,” with a very large additional price tag attached. The fact is, most fulfillment providers are not interested in accommodating special requests, and if they agree to them, they expect to be paid well above and beyond their normal fees.

At Spectra, we fill a niche in the industry by happily incorporating special handling requests and other “value added services” for very reasonable fees. With a fulfillment center that hits the “sweet spot” between large and small, we have the personnel and equipment needed to accomplish special requests as well as the agility to execute them for each client.

Seamless, Painless Integration With Platforms

The worst period of time for miscommunication with a third-party fulfillment provider is the transition period at the launch of the relationship. The more time it takes for the provider to figure out how to connect their inventory management and customer ordering systems to the client’s software and platforms, the more frustrated customers become as their orders are delayed. Once the systems are connected, any problems that occur cause even more confusion and risk alienating customers permanently.

The Spectra team has an unusual amount of knowledge and experience internally related to integration with platforms of all types, and clients consistently find that integration happens extremely quickly. We do what it takes to avoid any interruption to the ordering process, so customers don’t have to wait longer to place or receive orders. The only changes customers notice are good ones, as ordering from you becomes easier, more convenient, and more trustworthy with Spectra’s experts in charge.

A Partner Worthy of Your Organization

In our relationships with clients, we actually go further than simply accomplishing all of the stipulations of the contract. Being an invisible, dependable partner that connects the client and their customers through high quality fulfillment is just the baseline for us. 

Once we have established the fulfillment process, integrated with the client’s platforms, and begun serving customers, our team looks for opportunities to improve the process wherever possible. One common opportunity is to use the in-house print facility at Spectra, which uses advanced digital print equipment to produce high quality collateral. This advantage is very valuable for many of our clients, allowing them to consolidate their third-party services and enjoy the same expert project management for all of their print and fulfillment needs. Our long history of expert fulfillment also puts us in a position to help our clients anticipate and avoid accessorial fees, which can cause the total cost for projects to quickly grow out of control. 

Schedule a call today to launch a partnership with Spectra and give your customers better service than ever before.