Logistical problems are a nightmare to business, especially delays in transport. Delays may affect the shelf life of products and reduce your customers’ trust. Delivery time relates to customer satisfaction and retention ‒ customers who experience a delay for the first time can always look elsewhere next time.
Often, delays are beyond your control. There may be documentation mistakes that originate from the client. Mother Nature may also hamper the estimated time of arrival. Bad weather conditions such as snow and hurricanes may be understandable, but they still add up to the costs of delay.
To avoid delays and dissatisfaction of customers, you need a plan of action.
Adopt cost-effective and efficient loading systems
Pallets were one of the greatest innovations of the 20th century. They reduced the risk of product damage and made it quicker to handle goods. In today’s fast-paced world, modern pallets optimize loading and unloading. Pallets in modern loading systems operate with skates that roll in and out of the truck or van. The skates allow the operators to load and unload the truck by just pulling the pallets. The equipment saves a lot of time and effort.
There are also automatic loading systems that cut hours in the process flow. They condense the time spent in loading and unloading goods, resulting in faster delivery. These systems also save employee costs since they aren’t manually operated.
Keep Your Inventory and Materials Ready
A good sign of a healthy business is a steady flow of products from you to your customers. Some items are more popular than others, and products lines may end and the remaining stock moved on. Maintaining the warehouse inventory provides an immediate check on stock, provides an indicator of turnover and is a secondary check on finances. For this reason, check on the availability of the products in your inventory so that you know when to re-stock your warehouse. The inventory will also help identify the location of stock in the warehouse layout to reduce search time.
Plan for packaging items to prevent shipping delays. Ready your packaging materials. With various different packaging materials available, make sure the packaging suits the products you’re dispatching.
Be Prepared for the Holidays
The orders and sales of certain products increase during the holidays, especially Christmas, as many people buy gifts for family and friends. With a surge in sales, deliveries will increase, so be prepared for the increased workload of your warehouse managers and distribution team.
Using independent courier services may result in delays during bank holidays when many companies are closed. This may spell out trouble for you and your customer. To prevent delays, check a government website for a complete list of holidays, and plan ahead so that your orders are dispatched in plenty of time.
Not all delays are avoidable but you may be able to reduce their impact through good management, checking for problems in the process flow, and preparing your resources. From there, you can avoid delays and gain satisfaction and trust from your patrons.
