The Importance of Fulfillment Warehouse Customer Service

When choosing a third-party logistics (3PL) partner to handle your order fulfillment, you probably consider factors like the company’s experience, technology, warehouse capacity and locations. But do you give any thought to its fulfillment warehouse customer service?

Maybe you should. Because, when you have a critical fulfillment issue – or even just an everyday question – a good customer service representative can be your best friend.

At Staci Americas Logistics, account service teams play a vital role in delivering fast, accurate, cost-efficient order fulfillment. We call them client success representatives (CSRs) because helping clients succeed is the focus of everything they do.

“CSRs serve as the interface between the warehouse and client, ensuring that associates on the floor get the information they need to fill and ship orders according to clients’ instructions, operating standards and performance metrics,” says Victoria Perkins, a client success executive at Staci Americas' Austell, GA, fulfillment center. “Also, we know what types of issues can arise and are always on the lookout to catch and resolve them quickly.

“For example, sometimes a client needs to cancel or add something to an order that’s already in progress,” she continues. “Our CSRs track those orders down and make the requested changes before the order ships. That saves the client money by avoiding product returns and extra shipments.”

Orly Trieber, a client success executive at Staci Americas' Cranbury, NJ, fulfillment center, likens the CSR team’s role to that of air traffic controllers.

“By coordinating the flow of critical information, we keep warehouse teammates up to speed on special requests, rush orders, order changes and other issues that can affect fulfillment efficiency, accuracy and costs,” Trieber explains. “Without that information, they would be metaphorically flying blind.”

She cites the time a client contacted her about a quality control issue with one of the products the company was selling.

“The client was getting complaints from its customers that the product was defective,” Trieber recounts. “We pulled all of the product we had in inventory and had our operations team inspect each item to determine whether it could be shipped. That saved the account a lot of money on returns and – equally important – prevented a lot of ill will in the marketplace.”

While client success representatives handle day-to-day tasks like providing instructions for custom kit assembly or ensuring compliance with routing and labeling requirements for B2B shipments, client success executives meet weekly with clients to keep abreast of anticipated seasonal volume spikes, special promotions or other changes that may be on the horizon. They also make recommendations to help clients save money in ways they may not have considered – for example, shipping products that don’t require padding in poly bags instead of boxes.

At every level, Perkins and Trieber say, fulfillment warehouse customer service is all about focusing on what the client needs to meet customer expectations for order delivery while still operating profitably.

How does your fulfillment warehouse customer service stack up?

At Staci Americas, we deliver customized fulfillment services through a customer-centered work culture.

• Each of our accounts is assigned a dedicated client success team.
• Client success teams are trained on their accounts’ specific SOPs and KPIs and operate as an extension of their clients’ staff.
• We perform regular internal audits to ensure efficiency and identify opportunities for improvement.
• We report on our performance through daily emails, weekly client meetings, monthly reports and quarterly trend analyses.

If you’re looking for a 3PL partner that can help you turn order fulfillment into a competitive advantage, contact Staci Americas and let’s start a conversation.