How to Manage Online Orders for your Business More Efficiently!

What’s the one thing a customer hates?

When a business does not respond to them fast enough.

They also hate when you give them wrong information. No customer wants to be told after they assume that they have successfully placed an order, that the product is no longer in stock and they have to order something new or wait for a couple of days to get a refund.

Now, make those two things a customer hates.

Do they also hate when you cannot deliver to them on the agreed date? Yes, they absolutely hate that. These are some of the issues that customers face with businesses that make them decide to never go back, whether the product they intended to buy was really cheap or there was a discount. Sometimes, it doesn’t even matter if they can’t find that product anywhere; the business just lost that customer for good.

As a business owner, hedging against situations like this is very important for your business growth. You need effective ways to manage your online orders so that you’re not missing out on your customers and their needs, and not sending potential customers away.

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What does Online Order Management mean?

Order management, and in this case in relation to online customers, is the end-to-end cycle of dealing with a customer, beginning from the time they come to make an inquiry or place an order, and ending after the customer’s order has been successfully delivered. In cases where a product is returned, the cycle doesn’t end until the logistics of getting the product back, and closing out the conversation with the customer has been concluded.

Before we go into the process for managing orders online, it is important to note the benefits of doing it and why every business should have a process in place.

Benefits of Managing Online Orders Efficiently for your Business

• You blow your customers away: When you organise your process for managing orders, there is very little room for error. This makes you more efficient, and helps you give your customers an easy, swift experience.

• Less clutter for you and your staff: An organised plan helps everyone know what they’re doing, when they should be doing it. Tasks are not being ignored because with your structure in place, everyone knows exactly what to do.

• Organised inventory: It’s so much easier to track and know what’s left in stock or not, when part of your process is checking what’s available and updating the numbers when something has been sold.

• Learning and improving: Having a process in place makes it easier for you to learn where your business might have flaws, and to be able to improve on those flaws and then track the effects of new processes on your business.

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5 Simple Order Management Processes you can Use

Most businesses typically have their own unique methods of dealing with customers, but some of the things that should be considered in your process for managing orders online include:

1. Active customer service

Orders could come in through multiple channels, most of which are dealt with by customer service agents. Make sure that your customer service staff are active, respond to the customers in the right way and have everything in place to move the customer to the next step; placing an order.

2. Availability of products

This comes next because it is just as important as the first step and actually goes hand in hand with it. Make sure that you record what products are available and your customer service has access to that information, so that they do not end up promising availability of an item that is not in stock at the time.

3. Payment confirmation

It is important to confirm that your payments go through, and your customer does not have to deal with complicated payment methods. To the best of your ability, also keep this process simple so that your customer does not lose interest from how complicated it is for them to part with their own money.

4. Packaging and shipping

The next step is to make sure that you’re sending out the customer’s order so that they can get it at the time you have promised them. Make sure to send out the right package to the right customer. Make sure to keep them updated on any delays or changes that might happen with delivery. (You don’t have to wait until they reach out to you!) Also keep track of the delivery service, and make sure you’re in sync with them; the way they treat your customers also affects your business.

5. Delivery confirmation

Make sure to confirm that your customer has gotten the right item delivered to them in good condition, and are very satisfied with the service all round.

Wondering Where to Start?

Now that you have an idea of what processes to track, it is a simple question of where to start. You can either:

1. Do it manually: Here, you can create a document, usually excel, where you’ll track everything from customer order placement, payment confirmation, order dispatch and order delivery. You should also not forget to keep track of your inventory as well. The disadvantage of doing this is that you have to do literally everything yourself, so that there’s information slipping through the cracks, as everything here is not updated automatically.

2. Use an order management app: Alternatively, you can go the easier route of using an order management app like the Bumpa app. With the Bumpa app, you can organise all your order requests in one place when you connect your Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Jumia or Konga page, e.t.c. This means that you’re less likely to miss any message from any customer. You can also track inventory automatically, so you know when you’re running out of stock on products. The best part is that you can add all of your staff members and assign roles to them with the staff account feature, thereby making it even easier for your orders to go smoothly from Customer service, to packaging, to shipping.

Find out more about the order management features like staff account, inventory tracking & meta integration that lets you manage orders online like a pro, all from one place. With the Bumpa pro plan, you can manage your online orders even better, and never miss or mess up a sale again.

A few Tips for Managing your Online Orders…

Before we wrap this up, here are some thoughts we have on how you can also keep the chaos at bay. Even with your process already in place, remember to keep these few things at the back of your mind.

1. Attend to orders according to how they come in, so that you do not miss even the oldest orders when you have a busy day. This ensures that all your customers get their orders on time and no order is forgotten, or abandoned. You do not want an irate customer coming in to ask about their order and then realize you’d totally forgotten about it, do you?

2. Always track your inventory. This can simply not be overstated. Make sure you have what you’re promising to deliver to your customer; not a look-alike, not a version of it, but exactly it. The only way to do this is to make sure you actually have exactly what has been ordered in stock.

3. Lastly, make sure your delivery service is on point. Your customer needs to get their order in a neat way, exactly how they want it, and exactly when they were promised they’d get it.

Apply these processes to your business with the tips shared, and combine your efforts with the powerful Bumpa app for inventory tracking, customer management, and assigning and tracking staff roles, and see how well you’ll manage your online orders this year, and grow your business!

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