‘Congratulations, someone has placed an order on your online store.’
As a new small business owner, you love to receive this type of message — you’ve made a sale!
Driving visitors to your website is not an easy task and takes time and patience while you promote, promote, promote. This means, every visitor is an important one. Take a moment to celebrate, but not too long because now it’s time to process that sale.
Fulfilling an order should be an easy task that flows smoothly without anxiety or panic. But if you have too many steps, it can turn into a task you dread. Here’s an example.
Mary sold stained-glass vases, all beautifully unique. She sold her stained glass from an online shop. Her website collected information she needed from her customers — name, address, phone number, etc. On the site, she was also able to manually track the progress of each order, however, payment and shipping posed a different venture.
Payment for each item went through an online payment system that accepted credit and debit payments. Shipping required an additional system that calculated the cost to ship and printed the shipping labels. Each step had its own fee structure leaving Mary unsure and searching for how much she actually paid and collected from each sale. She needed a better process. Here’s why.
An efficient workflow:
- Saves time and energy — everything flows smoothly, shortening the turnaround time
- Minimizes mistakes and relieves stress, especially if the error involves contacting the customer
- Builds brand reputation — seamless delivery is not a bad quality to possess
- Saves money by not repeating steps or incurring additional service fees
Not only was Mary’s process complicated by different applications, it also made tracking payments, fees and taxes a more onerous task. She soon realized she needed to review her process to streamline the steps.
Planning your process
There are a few things you can do to avoid a situation like Mary’s.
- Start off by setting clear goals for your business. What do you want to accomplish and how do you envision the process?
- Review the steps you need to take and investigate different systems so you choose the one that’s right for you.
- Talk to other small business owners. What are they using?
- Choose tools that work efficiently together. Mary discovered that her web platform had additional e-commerce functionality and could easily link to her shipping resource.
Once you have your workflow nailed, record it for reference and review it regularly as your business evolves. It will also serve as a great resource to onboard new team members.
How smooth are your business practices? Do you have a system you’d recommend? Let’s share!
Writing for you. 