Fulfillment service companies offer a range of options for their small, home-based and ecommerce client businesses, including features designed to streamline operations while at the same time allowing the client business a host of growth options. For the small business client, probably the greatest advantage lies in the fulfillment company freeing them of the time and resource demands that warehousing, storage, processing, and shipment would normally require.
Many fulfillment companies and third party logistics providers are broad and diverse enough in their structure to offer their features even to small and relatively small startup business ventures. While the exact features available vary from provider to fulfillment company provider, most small business and ecommerce entrepreneurs won’t have trouble finding a fulfillment service company that can accommodate the scope of their sales and distribution needs.
Fulfillment Companies Do The Dirty Work
It’s strange to say, but most of the behind the scenes business of a startup or ecommerce company isn’t very exciting. In fact, it’s actually exacting, precise work. Inventory must be stored and managed, facilities must be maintained, staff hired and managed, and orders quickly shipped and tracked. For small business owners looking for the thrill of business growth and the ever-elusive sense of success, such day to day details can prove a true distraction.
But fulfillment companies take those burdens on themselves, handling the day to day processing and mail order fulfillment chores in exchange for a percentage of the profits made by each product sale. As the client company’s business grows, so too grows the fulfillment service’s profits as well.
Fulfillment Companies Also Handle Customer Service
In a perfect world there would be no need for customer service and complaint resolution. We do not live in a perfect world. Customers call with dissatisfaction, with grievances, sometimes just with benevolent confusion or questions about how to use or operate the product they’ve purchased from your business.
Many fulfillment companies provide trained staffs of educated phone operators who are expert in handling customer concerns and complaints. They work from policies directed from the client company, while representing not the company itself and not the fulfillment service company.
Finally, some fulfillment companies can even handle mailings of promotional items such as catalogues and brochures, attending to the postage and printing needs as determined by the client company. The mailings can go out in tandem with shipments or as a separate marketing initiative.