Build a Partnership
The starting point for any supplier / client transaction, is building a relationship. Many ecommerce brands rely heavily on 3PLs to fulfil their promises to the end consumer – with that comes responsibility that should be a partnership, not a transactional business arrangement.
We explore the key aspects of building 3PL client relationships in our blog, and a strong partnership can help you to manage client queries too. By being a reliable partner in a brand’s supply chain, queries into order status, invoices, inventory levels can be minimised, unless urgent. A brand’s trust in you as a partner means they don’t need to check up on you about the bare minimum – that you’re doing what’s been agreed.
Client Communications
The trust within a 3PL and client partnership relies heavily on communication. Setting up a regular cadence for catch-ups, reporting and discussing your partnership can aid in the relationship building. Additionally, giving your clients dedicated points of contact, such as an Account Manager can further support that.
Through regularly set meetings, you can get ahead of any queries that may come through, either addressing them ahead of time, or getting a clearer understanding of the information your client needs, responding by altering your reporting cadence or which KPIs you report on, as an example.
Service Level Agreements (SLAs)
A key component to a successful partnership is setting expectations. It’s common practice for businesses offering a service to agree Service Level Agreements (SLAs) at the beginning of any contract.
These not only set expectations, but also help quash some of the worries a client may have, which result in lots of queries. Some typical 3PL / client SLAs are:
- Account management response times – time taken to respond to queries or complaints
- Order fulfilment or processing time – time taken from order placed to order shipped
- On-time shipment rate – acceptable rate of shipments that leave the warehouse on time
- Inbound inventory – acceptable timeframes to process inbound goods
- Shrinkage allowance – acceptable rate of lost goods i.e. damaged or lost inventory
- Reporting frequency – cadence of KPI reports and communications
Here are some examples of how an SLA could reduce the number of client queries you receive…
Order processing time = by agreeing a timeline for orders to be processed, your client has confidence that all orders received will be handled within the timeframe, reducing their need to contact you for regular updates.
Account management response times = by setting expectations for how quickly your team will respond to a query, you can reduce the number of ‘chasing’ messages and requests for follow-ups after a query has come in.
Understanding Client KPIs
Understanding the data your clients want to see and providing it in a regular KPI report can help you to reduce queries by being ahead of the game. It can stop those knee-jerk requests to create reports and produce data, and also support your regular meetings with your clients.
While every client is different, and may want different KPIs monitored and reported on, here are some of the common KPIs clients of a 3PL want to see:
- Picking accuracy
- On-time & in-full (OTIF)
- Returns processing time
- Damage rate
- Order processing time
If reports are already set up, it’s easy to regularly provide them to your clients, answer any queries that do arise, as well as adapt as your client’s business grows and changes.
Transparent Invoicing
Invoice queries are not only frustrating for you and your clients, they’re a drain of your time and resource. The time it takes to prove your invoices are accurate or finding the error, communicating back and forth with your clients and chasing payment, is time you could spend elsewhere in your business. It can also result in client confidence being lost, and even terminated contracts.
Transparent and itemised invoices can help reduce queries, as they lay out in detail the full breakdown of charges for your client. You can explore more about 3PL billing best practices in our blog.
Senior Commercial Manager, Steve Mills from Bray Solutions discussed Mintsoft’s 3PL billing capabilities in a recent interview; he said: “One of the great things about the billing module is that it's reduced our invoicing queries from on average around 5 a month, down to 0 now.”
Give Remote Access to Their Data
Transparency is the key to ensuring clients are always up to date, and the easiest way is to give your clients access to the data that’s important to them.
With a client portal connected to your warehouse management software, your clients can login to view their own orders and progress status, stock numbers, invoices, KPIs and reports, as well as offer them a way to raise queries.
The added bonus is that you will reduce queries using a client portal, as your clients don’t need to message or call you for updates.
With Mintsoft, this is easily achieved, as The Fulfilment Experts found out, COO, Laszlo Nortje said:
“We pitch Mintsoft as our digital warehouse - their digital warehouse. We say, we want you to feel that you have access to your warehouse and you do via Mintsoft.
You can track your orders, see the status of orders, see your inventory, see what inbound stock's been received, and see the status of an ASN. The benefits are countless, not just for us as a 3PL, but again for our customers.
It's a big responsibility and trust is a massive factor in onboarding a new customer, and Mintsoft gives us that step closer. The initial relationship is strengthened so quickly with a customer using a system like this because they don't feel like they're in the dark.”
Reducing Client Queries with Mintsoft
Handling client queries effectively is about being proactive, transparent, and responsive, but better yet, you want to reduce them as much as possible. By building strong partnerships, setting clear SLAs, understanding client KPIs, and offering remote access to data, 3PLs can reduce the number of client queries, while simultaneously fostering long-term trust.
With tools like Mintsoft’s WMS with built-in 3PL features such as the client portal, you can empower your clients with the visibility they need, minimising queries and maximising satisfaction.
Discover the Mintsoft platform for yourself via the interactive demo, or speak to one of our product experts.
