5 Ways To Improve Your Delivery Service

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5 Ways To Improve Your Delivery ServiceDelivery is a core aspect of business. Whether you’re operating out of your bedroom or you’re a corporate giant, the delivery service matters. It all comes down to the final product you deliver to your customer. The delivery aspect is tricky when you’re a small business. Packaging and posting each item yourself takes time and dedication. But, it doesn’t get much easier when you start making more sales! Things become a great deal more complicated, and mistakes become easier. Whatever size your business, you could stand to improve the delivery service. Here’s how.

1. Automated software

Our first trick is to automate everything. From the moment an order comes into your system, it should automatically produce an address label. The software should track the delivery through your fulfillment process, checking off boxes as it goes along. This way, if something goes wrong or a parcel gets lost, you know where the problem is. That software should track the package all the way to delivery (more on that later). With software systems like this, you always know where things are.

2. Choose the right logistics company

As your business grows, you’ll begin to manage increasing order numbers. At a certain point, your small operation won’t be able to handle everything. When that happens, you’ll want to consider outsourcing your delivery system. The final part of your supply chain solutions should be a reliable delivery provider. Logistics companies have the resources to go abroad with ease, and they run their deliveries like clockwork.

3. Use GPS and telematics

The most crucial part of the delivery process is monitoring and measuring. You should track every single parcel that leaves your warehouse, and know where it is at all times. If there are any problems, you can spot exactly where the last check in was. Even using expert freight management solutions offers you real-time shipment tracking and regular status updates, which can be very helpful. By doing that, you can monitor their performance. How fast are the deliveries? Could they be even faster or more reliable?

4. Keep customers updated

There’s nothing worse than keeping your customers in the dark when it comes to deliveries. Use the automated software, and the tracking facilities, to keep your customers updated. Let them know when the package is dispatched. Let them know when it’s out for delivery, and the best time to expect their driver. At the end of the day, your entire delivery process is shaped around customer satisfaction. Keep them happy!

5. Exceed expectations

Speaking of customer satisfaction, it’s your job to go above and beyond the typical delivery service. Your customers have a baseline of expectations. In other words, they expect the delivery on time. They expect the product to be safely packaged. All you have to do, is add a little extra flair. Good customer service on the doorstep will exceed their expectations. So will a creative or unique package. Or an extra note to say thank you for their service.

Your delivery system is the heart of your business. Execute it with precision, and always exceed your customer’s expectation!

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How to Optimize Your Maintenance Spare Parts Inventory

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Economic demands place increasing pressure on executives and managers to reduce costs while maintaining high levels of operational safety and reliability. For Work Management and Supply Chain leaders, areas of potential savings lie with:

  • optimizing inventory levels while reducing associated carrying costs,
  • minimizing or eliminating expediting costs, and
  • eliminating losses incurred as parts become obsolete in the warehouse

… while providing the highest level of parts availability.

While every company’s circumstances are unique, StrategyDriven Advisors observe significant avoidable expenses incurred because of work management – supply chain program misalignments, including:

  • inventory reduction of 10 – 25 percent
  • near elimination of expediting costs
  • significant reductions in warehouse spoilage and obsolescence

As a complimentary supplement to this video, StrategyDriven’s Maintenance Inventory Optimization, Work Management – Supply Chain Interface Barriers whitepaper presents the sixteen most commonly occurring work management – supply chain program barriers our advisors have identified when helping clients optimize their inventories. We believe these barriers represent an excellent starting point to evaluate the sufficiency of your company’s spare parts inventories.

Download StrategyDriven’s Maintenance Inventory Optimization whitepaper – It’s FREE!

About the Author

Nathan Ives, StrategyDriven Principal is a StrategyDriven Principal and Host of the StrategyDriven Podcast. For over twenty years, he has served as trusted advisor to executives and managers at dozens of Fortune 500 and smaller companies in the areas of management effectiveness, organizational development, and process improvement. To read Nathan’s complete biography, click here.

Three Key Strategies Any Business Can Adopt in 2016 to Boost Profitability

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It is a competitive market in today’s economy. After 26 years since the creation of the businesses now have a number of methods and channels to distribute marketing and information about their products and services and are able to reach a varied and broad audience. While this may be an effective marketing approach, it generates an almost cutthroat atmosphere of competition. Here are three key strategies any business can adopt in the coming year to boost profitability:

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About the Author

Richard MilamRichard Milam is the president and CEO of EnableSoft. Prior to founding EnableSoft, in 1995, Richard was a partner and Senior Vice President of FiTech PLUSmark, and held other positions in Information Technology, Operations, and Sales.

4 Services You Need For Your Business To Succeed

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4 Services You Need For Your Business To Succeed
It’s nearly 2016 and that could mean a new start for your company. Perhaps this year wasn’t as profitable as you hoped so it’s time to make some changes. If you want your business to be successful, we suggest you invest in the right services. That way you can save on costs as well as making sure your business is run more effectively. These are the services and solutions that we suggest.

Legal Advice

It’s crucial for a modern business to hire the right legal help. There are a number of different ways your business can find itself with a legal issue. It could be related to your employees. This might be to do with human resources, bullying or even an accidental injury. You’ll be thankful that you have employment law consultants at hand, ready to help.

You could find that you have a contractual dispute with a supplier. When dealing with contracts for your business, it’s best to think ahead. You need to make sure that you always have legal help whenever you are making a new deal with business partners. That way you will be completely protected. Of course, legal solutions are just one of the ways you need to protect your company.

IT Support

We imagine that a large majority of your business is dependent on online networking. If that’s the case you need to make sure that it doesn’t break down or falter. It’s difficult to do this without hiring a full IT team for your business. That’s costly so instead you should outsource this job to an IT support service. They’ll keep a check on your computer systems and ensure everything operates smoothly. This is particular beneficial if your business is using cloud-based software.

Using cloud-based software, you might be running your company from outside of an office. In fact it could be a global machine with lots of different parts. But if the server breaks, then you will almost certainly run into issues operating your business.

A Business Consultant

Business consultants come in all different forms and with various charges. You could get a marketing consultant or a customer service consultant. Either way, they are sure to boost the effectiveness of your business, offering you key advice in their specialised area. That said, the cost is troublesome. That’s why we suggest you use a person business advisor instead. These are far more cost friendly and will provide your company with great support.

A Market Agency

Lastly, any successful business owner will tell you just how important marketing is. It’s not just about getting your business noticed. It’s about making sure that your company is remembered by customers and that you are constantly making waves. The best way to do this is to hire a digital marketing agency. They’ll run promotion for your business on all major platforms, ensuring customers find and use your company.

Use these solutions and we guarantee your business will be more effective, and you will maximise your profits in the new year.

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Outsource These Tasks For Business Success

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Success in the business world relied on many different factors. You need to supply the right products or services at the right price. You also need to place your operation in the best location possible. All company bosses have to seek suitable team members to push their business forward too. However, sometimes it’s better to outsource certain tasks rather than employ more people. We’re going to draw your attention towards some of the most commonly outsourced jobs in this post. With a bit of luck, the information will help to save money and take your business to the next level. We’ll explain the reasoning behind outsourcing each process to set the record straight.

Outsource These Tasks For Business Success
Photo courtesy of Dream4U

Customer service

Most savvy business owners outsource the customer service part of their companies these days. That is because it’s much cheaper to let dedicate firms handle the job. You simply have to provide them with lots of information about your operation. You can even hand them a script if you would like their staff to use certain language. The best thing about outsourcing customer service roles is that you can keep your team small. It would cost a fortune to employ ten people just to answer emails, letters, and telephone calls. As you will discover when you research the market, you can get other people to handle that task for much less.

Marketing

You need lots of spare time to work on the success of your company. That means you might have to attend lots of networking events and such. You might also need a couple of hours each day just to sit thinking about your next moves. It’s impossible to have that much time on your hands if you don’t outsource your marketing efforts. There are hundreds of professional firms out there who would happily deal with the matter one your behalf. Most of the people working for those companies have official qualifications in the subject. So, you just need to trust in their expertise. Again, outsourcing that job is cheaper and more efficient. You could get amazing results in only a couple of days.

SEO

The guys at www.LosAngelesSEO.org say all company bosses now understand the importance of SEO. While that might be true, many of them are still handling the process in-house. That is a terrible idea because professionals working in that field know more than you. The simplest SEO mistakes could cause a penalty and damage your online reputation. At the same time, Google changes the rules far too frequently for you to keep up. Outsourcing the SEO process should mean you appear at the top of relevant search results very quickly. You’ll have to pay a premium for the service, but anything less makes you look like an amateur.

Web development

Some people decide to employ a web designer directly. That is a great idea if your company is making a decent profit and you can afford the cost. However, outsourcing the job will help you to save money during the early stages. Don’t make the mistake of trying to design your business website without expert help. Those free site building tools advertised on the TV might look good, but they’re not. Any internet user worth their salt can spot an amateur website a mile away. You need to present the right online image, and it’s impossible to do that without a professionally designed domain. Also, most web development firms will offer maintenance deals you should consider.

Content writing

Professional writers will always create better content than other people. For that reason, you should try to find a good and reliable freelancer. The people over at www.freelance.com have helped to make that process much easier. Ask them to create the content for your website, and your marketing emails too. In fact, you could ask them to write every letter you ever send. Outsourcing writing tasks should mean you always present the best wording to your customers and clients. Also, some writers will know how to use psychology to get better results. The way in which your text is written can make a huge different to success levels.

So long as you outsource all the processes mentioned on this page, your business should grow and expand quickly. Some company bosses have an issue when it comes to letting go of the reins. However, you must understand that trusting other people with certain parts of your business is essential. The last thing you want to do is build a company that needs thousands of staff members. There is just too much risk involved when you could simply pass work to other professionals.

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