Good Communication Doesn’t Begin and End with Sales: How Warehousing & Logistics Fits into the Business Partnership Picture

By: Paul E. Roberts, Principal – Roberts Statistical & Consulting Services, Los Angeles

Creating and cultivating partnerships with your customers is a vital part of all business relationships. After all, clients are the demand that your organization needs to supply. While sales and customer service are at the front line of the customer-vendor connection, there are many other touchpoints that are equally as important.

As I’ve mentioned in previous articles, great information about external stakeholders can be discerned from your contacts in your warehousing and logistics departments. Often overlooked, the data that can be garnered from these departments can alert you, along with company leadership in all departments to both challenges and opportunities.

Of course, the importance of good communication in your company starts at the top. Company leadership sets the standards for how all internal stakeholders interact and transmit information to external partners. With everyone up to speed on the proper policies and procedures, good communication to customers should be almost effortless.

Company Contacts Through the Warehouse:

Information regarding partnerships comes from a myriad of sources. All data that is received should be properly vetted and verified. What is being discussed at the sales and customer services level can easily be validated by contacts with warehousing and logistics.

Warehousing personnel, the primary receivers and shippers of products, can be empowered to recognize the movement of key items that your customers order on a regular basis. They can alert sales, customer service, and procurement departments when high velocity shipments start to slow or increase. Their information helps to corroborate what is being seen through CRM and inventory control software.

Having various sources of information allow for better decision making. There are times when warehouse employees notice something, be it a concerning shift in product purchasing trends or even an opportunity to increase profits, long before it is recognized by sales and customer service. Even something as small as the level of dust on high moving items can be a signal to the rest of the company of a business shift or an upcoming challenge.

Data from warehouse operations on the movement of high velocity products help sales operations have needed conversations with important clients. Understanding what is going on within a customer’s organization helps you to maintain the proper inventory and availability of products.

The Benefits of Information When Customers Pick Up:

Businesses that allow customers to pick up at their facility create the opportunities for important customer touchpoints. Warehouse personnel can ask customer employees that are picking up a number of valuable questions:

·???????How are things going at your company?

·???????Why don’t you buy that high moving item we usually sell to you anymore?

·???????Have your deliveries increased or decreased? Why is that happening?

Warehouse employees have the opportunity to get the real information about what’s going on in your customers’ organization, even if their leadership is sending you a different message. Allowing them to feel empowered with the information they glean allows them to feel like part of the overall company team when they are able to be the conduit for better sales.

The Importance of Customer Contact Points through Logistics:

Like their warehouse counterparts, companies that run their own logistics fleet can find out important information as well.

Delivery drivers are always on the ground floor of a customer’s operation. They get a chance to see what is going on through their client’s receiving dock. A quick glance around can provide a great amount of data:

·???????Are their facilities clean, neat, and efficiently operated?

·???????Is your delivery being handled promptly at the appropriate time?

·???????Does your driver see any competitor’s delivery trucks and/or product on site?

·???????What is the demeanor of your customer’s employees?

All this information is great data to help solidify your business’s vendor-customer relationship. Logistics personnel are truly on the front lines and can see what other stakeholders do not always get to see and hear.

Keeping the Customer Relationship Going at Full Speed:

Each member of a partnership comes with specific expectations that others are expected to execute.

As the vendor in the relationship, your company is expected to provide products and services in an efficient manner through order processing, shipment, and delivery through warehousing and logistics. Allowing employees in this important part of your partnership process to act as additional eyes and ears will help to keep your customer relationship running smoothly.

For a partnership to become a lifelong relationship, all parties are expected to make their best effort to ensure that all needs are met through the supply of products and services the customer demands. The knowledge gained from sources in warehousing and logistics go a long way toward attaining the mutually agreed upon goals.

Does your company need operational help? Is your existing business plan due for a refresh? Has your company lost focus and you are looking to re-energize it? RobertsSCS is here to work with you to bring your business processes into focus. Call us today at (310) 972-8243 or reach out to us at [email protected]

About RobertsSCS:

Roberts Statistical & Consulting Services ─ RobertsSCS ─ offers results-oriented strategies, mentoring, and insights to optimize operations for legacy companies looking for 21st Century upgrades to improve profitability, increase sales growth, and future-proof systems for sustainability.

Using 30-plus years of operating and management experience, RobertsSCS works with businesses with $1-30 million in revenue to create better efficiency, synergy, and outreach.?We provide developmental, strategic, and executable plans of action at multiple levels: wholesale, retail, B2B, and B2C for organizations desiring to maximize industry market share.

Knowing the market environment and the status of each business we work with allows us to provide customized insights on growth and profit opportunities at the local, regional, and/or national market level.