Increasing sales is usually thought of as being the job of the marketing and sales departments. Marketing drums up new product ideas, studies the market, looks for new markets, sets up lead generation campaigns, and sends the leads to the sales department, which then converts the leads into customers. From this incomplete description of these two departments, it’s clear how they increase sales.
On the other hand, what does a warehouse management system have to do with sales? Unlike marketing and sales, a well-implemented warehouse management system has a less direct but long-lasting positive effect on sales, and there is only one reason for this: it helps ensure that products arrive at the right place, at the right time, and in good condition. It is also a prerequisite for a high-performing sales team to demonstrate product availability to customers. This is a very important factor that often goes unrecognized. In fact, customer satisfaction is now recognized as one of the key success factors in any business.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
No matter how many new orders marketing and sales bring in, a poor customer experience will instantly sour the new customers’ relationship with the company and they will never come back. While the company may get a single sale from some of these people, basing a business on one-time sales from unhappy customers only increases the pool of people with a poor opinion of the company. This opinion can find its way online and discourage many new prospects from ever making their first purchase.
On the other hand, when your warehouse consistently and unerringly delivers products on time for years, you build up a huge customer base of satisfied repeat buyers. The cost of keeping these customers is about one-sixth that of getting new customers.
The benefits of loyal customers don’t end there. Smart incentives and reward programs can increase their purchases. This expanding pool of satisfied and loyal customers will refer new businesses your way by word of mouth and positive reviews.
Better Forecast
The ability to make better & accurate demand forecasting gives the company the ability to save money by trimming its safety stock. Improved inventory management gives the company a better and bigger picture to be able to determine which products to introduce, where and when to introduce them. A more accurate demand forecast allows the company to order just enough materials at just the right time. This gives the company the ability to save money, improve customer service and morale. Employees and customers can trust and depend on their employer to provide them with what they need to do their job well.
Improved Employee Morale
Implementing a WMS solution in your warehouse or distribution centre can boost your employee’s morale. One of the key features of the warehouse management system lies in its integration with ERP systems (enterprise resource planning), e-commerce system, or any other solutions – improving information flow. Your team has real time visibility of the entire inventory to better serve the customers.
Better Visibility
To have an improved supply chain begins with complete inventory visibility across all warehouses and distribution centers. WMS cloud software solution enables 360-view of inventory movements including incoming and outgoing items, and tracking of product returns.
Nothing inspires trust more than a solid history of excellent service. Of course, the other parts of the company must pull their weight as well. Running a warehouse operation that achieves this kind of success isn’t easy, especially as the company grows and the warehouse operations get larger and more complex. This kind of unerring consistency is best accomplished with a well-implemented warehouse management system. It must be in perfect sync with the physical operation of the warehouse. How is this done? Contact MicroChannel, and we’ll happily explain.
