How to Tick Off Everyone From Vendors to Customers 101
Honestly, sales – B2B or B2C – is an easy job!
- Get the order
- Fill the order
- Ship the order
- Profit!
- Repeat
How could anyone mess that up? Oh, there are ways and lots of them. Unfortunately, in the push to grow the company, some pressures that lead to not making decisions that need to be made, making decisions based on expediency instead of long-term needs, and planning that is more about faking it than making it. Flying by the seat of the pants when it comes to creating a lasting business only results in a crash and burn. So here are some ways to annoy everyone in the supply chain from vendors to customers and even your own sales staff.
- Don’t keep a live inventory and run out of popular items needed to fill orders.
- Order a huge order from the vendor and then ask/beg/demand that it be filled and rushed.
- Fill orders without having popular items, then complain when sales reps aren’t meeting their targets.
- Blame the warehouse staff for excessive backorders or mispicked items.
- Blame the vendor for out-of-stock items.
- Ship back-ordered items without warning.
- Explain to the salespeople that they don’t need a live inventory and that a weekly QOH is enough to fill orders from – never mind that a QOH is incorrect the same day it’s issued.
These are all ways to lose not only sales but clients and employees. If a company experiences a high number of dormant accounts and a high turnover in staff, it’s time to stop looking for the problem and start looking in the mirror.
Fix It
Start by checking online reviews of your company, then check how former employees have critiqued their time with the company. Glassdoor has given many companies a humbling when they read the critiques from former employees, but fixing the problem requires honesty about where the problem lies. Every B2B or B2C business is a supply chain business, and every business needs to get a handle on their inventory so that they can meet customer demands. This undertaking requires a few different expenditures that invest in the supply chain process and are an introduction to Inventory Management 101.
- Get the basics in place. Barcoding, SKU generation, and barcode reading equipment is the foundation to build on. The items are put away, then picked and scanned out of inventory at the pick cart level. The scanner adds or removes items from inventory in real time, with preset levels of items that alert management to order right away.
- Add information-rich systems in the form of Voodoo Electronics pick-to-light systems. Wireless-enabled and powered by two AAA batteries, these devices work on pick and put-away carts, shelves, bins, and even on a pallet jack or forklift. Between picks, devices show inventory (quantity and SKU) right on the display!
Get in touch with Voodoo Robotics and schedule a free demonstration to see what information-rich Cloud Display Devices can do for your inventory management system.
Get Started
Let’s have a conversation so we can better understand your needs. Schedule a demo or contact us and get control of inventory!
If the system avoids just a few mispicks, it’s paid for itself!
