Sales Order Management with CloudOffix

What is Order Management and Why do we need an Order Management system?

Sales order management is the process of receiving the order, picking packing and shipping the items in the order, and receiving feedback regarding customer satisfaction.

When a customer places an order through any one of the many sales channels we have available, the seamless order management process starts its steps through the supply chain. The right order management begins with the right order management software such as CloudOffix. Make your customer experience the most satisfactory sales process.

Steps involved:

The sales order cycle doesn’t end with a sale order, it begins a process. The sales order process. This process is quite an important one because it will determine whether customers use your services as a one-off or they keep coming back for more. 

We prefer the latter option, for obvious reasons – we want returning, satisfied customers so we can increase revenue. And as everyone knows - a happy customer is a returning customer.

The steps to completing the sales order process is outlined in a few steps for you.

Order placed and received:

Once you have received an order entry from a customer through one of our many sales channels, or have manually entered orders into the system, the process has begun. Part of order fulfillment is to correctly manage inventory an track orders to provide a satisfactory customer service and meet customer demand.

Your lead has nurtured into opportunity, then made its way through the sales cycle all the way to placing an order. Success! But it doesn’t end there. So what’s next?

Now you need to take the next steps to satisfying your customer and ensuring they choose you every time. CloudOffix will provide you with the CRM software to ensure a smooth ride through the sales cycle process all the way to complete customer satisfaction.

So your customer has placed their order and you have accepted and received payment through CloudOffix invoicing cloud. You have come this far using CloudOffix multichannel sales sytem.

You have received online orders through the website you have so easily built using CloudOffix E-Commerce Cloud. It was so simple to use, with wonderful drag and drop features, action buttons, text and Picture boxes and fully integrated with online payment gateways!

So far so good, right? Well that’s not all.

Receive orders through our integrated multichannel sales features such as through our e-commerce cloud as mentioned earlier or, if you prefer, use your social media channels, or other platforms such as Amazon, Ebay. All sale orders are integrated, where everything is easily manageable on one platform.

Pick pack ship:

This step involves fulfilling the customer’s order until it reaches them. You must make sure the order reaches the correct customer in a reasonable amount of time, and intact! Therefore, warehouse management is another integral part of this business process. 

There are a few extra steps within this step to ensure this. Further steps involved here are as follows:

Picking: 

Pick and package the items your customers have ordered. Pick the correct item from your warehouse. Pick the correct items requested in the order throughCloudOffix Inventory, where they are listed by item codes. Leaving you to easily fulfill this step without giving way to human error.

Packing: 

Packing is crucial especially for fragile and breakable items where special care must be taken. Always use the correct packaging for items. You don’t want to under package which may lead to breakage of the items, nor do you want to over package and waste valuable packaging material unnecessarily.

Shipping and Delivery: 

Your warehouse staff usually have the following tasks once the packaging is completed with the order:

1.   Label the package correctly and attach the corresponding invoice.

Label the parcels correctly, using CloudOffix to print out your customer’s delivery details and invoice. The last thing you want or need is to ship the parcel to someone else, causing your once enthusiastic customer to become an unhappy one. therefore, using the correct shipping label is crucial for streamlined order delivery.

2.   Mark the order as shipped on all of your sales channels

Now that the order is out of your premises and making its way to its new owner, you need to update the order status on all your sales channels. If you are using multiple channels, make sure to update all of them not just your ecommerce platform. Trust me, your customer will be keeping an eye out for their new toy, and of course how your business is handling this process. So, take the opportunity to make a great impression!

3.   Email the shipping confirmation and tracking number details to your customer.

You have picked packed and shipped the order items to your customer. But your customer has no clue about it unless they have some kind of magic Powers or they are a medium. Most people aren’t. 

Send an email within CloudOffix to your customer, informing them with the latest status of their order. Keep your delivery times to a minimum, customer satisfaction to a maximum.

Payments and refunds:

The accounting part of sales order management is also very simple with CloudOffix. Receive payments securely through CloudOffix Invoicing cloud, fully integrated with online payment gateways such as Paypal, Iyzico, Wise,Ingenico just to name a few.

Although accounts receivable is the more favoured department, if a refund should be necessary for any reason whatsoever, you can also smoothly carry out this process. Oh, don’t think negatively straight away! Perhaps your customer has changed their mind, they want to order a different item, different size, or they want to change it for some reason.

Keep your customers and yourself happy with CloudOffix.

Follow up:

You have followed the nessesary steps, your customer has received their order and your work here is done, right? Well actually, that’s not the case at all. We’re not finished yet!

Customer satisfaction is another important factor for your business, if not the most important part. You want to keep your happy customers the way they are, and improve where necessary to turn unhappy customers (if any) into happy ones. Lets face it, we are human. We all have room for improvement.

Once your order process is complete, use CloudOffix surveys to follow up with your customers. Email them customer satisfaction surveys and ask them how they thought you handled the process and which areas they think you need improving. 

This step carries great importance because it shows your customers that you actually care about them. Your customers will love this kind of attention because it makes them feel valued. It’s these little actions of care that play a big role as being one of the deciding factors between a returning customer and a one-time customer. Use CloudOffix accurate real time data reporting tools to measure for improvements if necessary.