A rapidly digitizing world has enhanced customers’ expectations from businesses. Advancements in technology have rendered many business models obsolete. One of those models includes the concept of customers waiting days or even weeks to receive orders. Instead, customers are actively demanding businesses to speed up their order fulfilment times, necessitating the need for firms to streamline their business processes.

Whether your business operates solely as an e-commerce store or through a brick-and-mortar store, you need to enhance operations and reduce inefficiencies. Customers are unwilling to wait for their deliveries. Moreover, companies need to adapt or risk closure as competitors overtake them, consolidating market share.

These changes in the business landscape are leading many companies to implement order management systems. Order management systems are the lifeline for firms seeking to improve business operations and eliminate waste and margins for errors. People often refer to order management systems as the heart of the operations, overseeing and administering all other processes to ensure they run efficiently.

What is an Order Management System?

Order Management System (OMS) is a software system that helps businesses automate order collection and payment processing. Automating these processes helps reduce human errors, thereby improving order management efficiency. Moreover, this system assists companies with their inventory management needs and helps mitigate order issues like late deliveries. Order management systems are becoming increasingly vital for most businesses, small or large.

When Do You Need an Order Management System?

Your business will require an order management system. Small companies with limited sales can skate by without implementing an order management solution. However, as your organization continues to grow, you’ll have to eliminate inefficiencies, necessitating implementing an OMS.

As businesses grow, the focus on developing a brand increases. Moreover, paying individual attention to each shipment isn’t possible. In addition, business growth often results in companies partnering with third parties for assistance. Whether your business opts to associate with a 3PL service provider or a commercial warehousing partner, the odds are you lose control over every aspect of your supply chain, making an order management system software paramount for your firm’s success.

Why Implement an Order Management Solution?

Implementing an order management system can increase the efficiency of your order management, leading to greater rates of order fulfilment. Moreover, the system eliminates many tasks involving manual labour, lowering your business costs. An automated system reduces human involvement, meaning you have to pay lower wages than before. In addition, automation also decreases the risk of human errors.

An OMS also helps a company to collect orders and process payments quickly, raising customer satisfaction. Increased customer satisfaction leads to rising sales, enhancing profitability.

Furthermore, OMS helps businesses operate in an omnichannel environment. According to data from the US Department of Commerce, e-commerce channels contributed to 20.8 percent of all sales for firms. OMS is vital for e-commerce businesses for several reasons. It helps meet consumer expectations regarding ordering from any channel. Moreover, it also helps support distributed order management for companies operating several stores or utilizing various distribution centres.

How Can an Order Management System Please Your Clients?

Implementing an order management system can help businesses please their clients in several ways. These include:

Omnichannel Environment

Businesses would struggle to operate in an omnichannel environment without an order management application. Today, customers order in various ways. A customer may choose to place an order through the firm’s website or a third-party marketplace. Alternatively, they may opt to order over the phone or via visiting the company’s store. Once they place an order, they might inquire about the order status using a different method. For instance, if a customer ordered online, they may call the company over the phone to ask about the order’s expected delivery time. Order management systems help organizations track orders across different channels. If a customer visits your store, the staff can access the software and provide the necessary information, regardless of how your customer placed their order.

Inventory Management

Nothing dismays customers more than a company running out of stock on their chosen product. Managing inventory can be a challenging endeavour for many companies. Some companies prefer stockpiling goods, while others like to adopt a lean inventory management approach. Regardless, there’s a likelihood that your company will suffer inventory problems.

However, an OMS helps companies manage their stocks adequately. Most systems have inventory management options, allowing companies to divide their goods into slow-moving and fast-selling products. Fast-selling products require regular re-ordering, whereas slow-moving products might require you to re-order them every few weeks or even months. In addition, many OMS provide detailed inventory reports. You can establish a minimum inventory threshold. Once your stock hits the minimum amount you’ve set, the OMS will automatically notify you to re-order.

Similarly, if you’re using multiple stores and distribution centres, an OMS will allow you to create inventory pools. Inventory pools are an excellent way to manage inventory. Pooling inventories means that the OMS will consolidate the stock of all stores or distribution centres in a given vicinity, providing greater flexibility. If a customer places an order and the nearest store to them doesn’t have the product in inventory, there’s a likelihood that you can’t fulfil the order. However, the OMS will automatically re-route the order to another nearby store for fulfilment. Therefore, an order management system allows you to reduce your lead order times and fulfil orders timely.

Serve Directly to Customers

Some order management systems allow businesses to create catalogues and display products for customers to browse and purchase. OrderTron’s online ordering system software provides businesses with the opportunity to display catalogues that customers can access. Our order management app allows customers to order through the application rather than relying on third-party marketplaces.

In addition, restaurants can use our cloud-based software to connect directly with food service suppliers. Our wholesale food distribution software caters uniquely to the needs of the food industry, allowing restaurants to purchase fresh produce with the single click of a button. Moreover, it allows wholesalers and suppliers to find partners in the industry who need a reliable supplier.

Streamline Refunds, Returns, and Exchanges

Although most businesses do their utmost to ensure order fulfilment goes smoothly, problems can arise. Late deliveries, broken items, and wrong shipments often occur. An OMS helps mitigate these problems and ensures customer satisfaction by making the return and exchange process easier. You can use your OMS system to create a self-return portal for your customers. If your customers receive an order that doesn’t satisfy them, they can use your system to initiate a self-service return. The system will automatically process the customer’s request before displaying it to an after-sales service employee to assess. The employee can sign off on the return, ensuring that the customer isn’t dissatisfied.

Likewise, some customers may decide to initiate a return or an exchange by visiting your store. An OMS system ensures that your after-sales service staff can carry out the reimbursement even if the customer purchased the product through a different channel, like online or via the phone.

Personalizing Orders

An order management system also allows you to add a personal touch to every order. You can integrate your OMS with your Customer Relationship Management system, ensuring that customers receive a customized email after they purchase. In addition, most OMS systems will also allow you to vary the emails you send to customers, depending on where they’re in the ordering stage. For instance, regular customers may not want updates about the latest promotions you’re offering. However, customers who purchase from your website infrequently may require enticing by sending them information about sales and discount periods. An order management system can help fulfil these conditions, allowing for a more personalized customer experience.

Feedback and Follow-up

Most order management systems also have features that enable you to obtain customer feedback. Once you fulfil an order, you can send an automated email to the customer requesting them to fill out a short survey for feedback purposes. Gaining your customer’s feedback can allow you to assess any inefficiencies within your system and improve them. Moreover, it also grants you the opportunity to listen to complaints from disgruntled customers and provide them with refunds or complementary services to compensate for an error. Furthermore, customers can also leave reviews using your system. According to research from Bright Local, 85 percent of people trust online reviews before purchasing.

Increase Your Customer Satisfaction with OrderTron’s Cloud-Based Software

If you’re operating a business in Australia, OrderTron’s small business order management software may be the perfect fit for you. We’ve designed our software to cater to the unique needs of the foodservice industry, ensuring synergy between wholesalers, suppliers, and restaurants. Moreover, our software doesn’t require any installations. We also have Android and iPhone applications to support our software, making it more accessible for businesses to use.

Businesses can demo our software for free. In addition, we also provide guided training and assist companies with data migration.

5 Ways Order Management Solutions Can Help You Please Your Clients