As people working in a third-party logistics organization, our goal here at Spectra is very unusual. We aim to be invisible!

The details included within that goal are very complicated, but when 3PL services are done right, the public isn’t even aware that they exist. If they’re done in a truly outstanding way, it also feels to the client of the 3PL organization (in this case, Spectra) that the organization is simply a division within the company itself. It’s a tall order for a service provider to understand a client’s business so well that they can effectively function as an extension of the business, but that’s just what Spectra does every day.

We’d like to describe what that relationship looks like with one of our clients, who recently expressed to us that they see Spectra as exactly that: an extension of their team. In a relatively short amount of time, Spectra has come on as this client’s fulfillment partner, integrated with their systems, and set up a fully functioning fulfillment system that has greatly benefited their company. Read on to see what’s involved and how Spectra can do the same thing for your organization.

GOLD Professional is a haircare, skincare, and beauty product company based in Denmark. They supply their products to salons throughout the United States, and they needed to find a fulfillment provider that could build them a detailed, reliable, and versatile fulfillment system based here in the States. In addition to the complexities of fulfilling orders for dozens of different product types for B2B customers, GOLD Professional also came to Spectra with many special handling, storage, and testing requirements for their products, many of which are flammable or sensitive to temperature changes.

Team Availability

If your organization operated its own fulfillment department in-house, the employees in that department would, of course, be fully aligned with the organization’s mission. Stakeholders from around the company would have access to the team, be able to communicate about how their activities relate to fulfillment, and have the option to ask questions about how to best serve the end user.

Prospective clients often come to Spectra with a concern that by working with a third-party fulfillment provider, they will lose that alignment and access. In reality, our clients regularly report that they are very pleasantly surprised by the levels of attention, communication, and support that they get from the Spectra team.

A representative from GOLD Professional states: “Relocating warehousing and fulfillment operations from South Florida to Spectra in South Carolina has been a beneficial decision for GOLD. I greatly appreciate the accessibility of Walter Kohn, the owner, as well as the solution-focused approach of Amber Watts, the COO. Interactions with the Spectra team are always positive.”

Value Added Services

If you’ve spent much time reading the Spectra blog, you know that we love to talk about value added services. That’s because we believe it truly sets our fulfillment strategy apart from the rest. Our work with GOLD Professional is a good example of why value added services are so important for clients in certain industries. 

The GOLD Professional line of beauty products includes products that are sensitive to extreme temperatures, humidity levels, and other climate factors. Some of the products are also flammable, necessitating special safety and labeling procedures. In fact, these complex factors were largely responsible for bringing GOLD Professional to Spectra in the first place. The fulfillment system they had in place previously was not able to reliably protect products from environmental factors, and deterioration due to those factors had led to expensive losses of product.

As our client reports today, “Tasks such as fulfillment, inventory inspections, receiving of containers, and handling special requests are executed with efficiency.” That statement means a lot coming from this client, who knows how badly things can go when the different steps of inventory management are mishandled. They also found that Spectra was happy to incorporate pest control, quality spot testing, and special handling procedures for flammable products, among other value added services, into the fulfillment system they created for GOLD Professional.

An Extension Of the Team

The statement that makes the Spectra team happiest came right at the end of the testimonial that GOLD Professional provided for us: “Spectra has truly become a valuable extension of the GOLD team.” In the end, Spectra’s fulfillment center was able to become a fully integrated step in the GOLD Professional relationship between the company and its B2B end users. When salons place orders for haircare and skincare products, they don’t feel that they are working with a service provider on behalf of GOLD; instead, they use an online system that is completely white labeled for GOLD Professional. 

Spectra is the invisible yet powerful factor that enables GOLD Professional to offer its products to salons all over the country, fulfill those orders quickly and dependably, and be confident that those products will be in good shape when they arrive at their destination. 

Let Us Join Your Team!

For an organization that ships to B2B customers on a regular basis, the kind of relationship we’ve described in this case study might sound like a pipe dream. While it’s not found very often in the third-party fulfillment world, it is certainly possible. Spectra accomplishes this type of top tier service for its clients by assembling a powerful team of experienced, innovative leaders, plus a larger team of employees who are just as passionate about providing amazing service to each client. 

You’ll find more success stories on our blog, and our team has plenty of others to share that illustrate Spectra’s ability to flex to fit the fulfillment needs of organizations in all sorts of different industries. We work with education materials, healthcare organizations, auto parts manufacturers, nonprofits, small and large companies alike, and much more. Schedule a consultation with Spectra today and find out what’s possible when you add our expert fulfillment personnel to your team.