| |
| |
|
Customer Service Information |
|
|
|
Proofs of Delivery and Logistics: Speeding Throughput and Avoiding Pitfalls
It should be a straightforward business scenario: making sure that the delivery documentation from the supplier or haulier matches up with the documentation at the target destination. However life is rarely straightforward, and if problems do arise, order completion times and cash flow will inevitably suffer as a result. Making the paperwork match Documents involved typically include delivery notes generated by the product supplier or logistics provider. The Customer takes delivery and confirms the goods are received by signing the delivery note, which becomes a proof of delivery (PoD). When the goods being delivered are accepted customers can also use their own delivery documentation, referred to as Goods Received Notes (GRN). The key issue is to match the customers' GRNs and the suppliers' delivery notes. This ensures that suppliers can raise an accurate and timely invoice for the goods delivered and accepted. This is vital to the completion of the whole process. Raising an incorrect invoice for goods shipped that may differ from the description of the goods accepted by the customer, will result in payment delay - extended debtor days - and adversely affected cash flow. Take a typical example. A customer takes an order from his supplier that is then dispatched with the supplier's delivery note. The customer takes delivery and confirms that the goods have been received by signing the delivery note. This note then becomes a PoD. In this case, the transaction has been straightforward. However problems arise if the following complications are added to the equation: ? The goods being delivered are discovered to be damaged. The customer will only take delivery of goods in a satisfactory condition, and this is annotated in the PoD. ? The goods being delivered are accepted by the customer, but he uses his own internal delivery documentation or GRN. This needs to be matched against the supplier's delivery note. The situation is complicated further when the customer uses his own internal product codes, and/or the goods are dispatched in multiple deliveries. In both these cases the actual delivery needs to be matched up with the outgoing sales invoice. Where there is a disparity, a normal 30-day credit period can drag out into a lengthy debtor cycle in which customers will not pay for goods delivered until the correct invoice has been raised. This can turn the normal 30-day period into 90 days or more. How a computerised system can make the process trouble free TokOpen is a program used by a major UK supplier of dairy products. Reduced reliance on physical pieces of paper allows more flexibility and a reduction in delivery problems. When sales orders are received from customers, despatch notes are printed and automatically captured and uploaded to the company's TokOpen data centre. Here they are printed from the AS400 Warehouse Management System. A unique folder is automatically created in TokOpen, where the document is stored and indexed by its delivery details. The ordered goods are delivered either on one vehicle or in multiple deliveries, as applicable. Delivery notes are signed, with handwritten comments inserted if a discrepancy has arisen. These signed documents are then returned to any one of the company's 20 depots across the country, where they are scanned by depot staff. At this point the documents are automatically indexed and uploaded to a TokOpen data centre where they are stored alongside the corresponding original despatch note in the appropriate folder. If a discrepancy is indicated on the scanned delivery note, this automatically triggers a warning for a customer service agent distribution to investigate. If necessary the invoice can be amended before the sales invoice is issued. This has to take place within 72 hours of delivery. All document access, workflow and investigations are performed using a standard Web browser, which ensures that the system can be quickly deployed with minimal administrative overheads. Where customers' own GRNs are received, these are scanned and read automatically, matching the delivery line items with corresponding items from the despatch notes. The system is flexible and allows a 'many to many' relationship - more than one delivery note relating to more than one GRN for a single customer order. The process is further complicated because customers use different product codes for goods delivered, and documents are returned at different times. The system automatically consolidates this process and matches the different documents and line items to the original order. All documents relating to an order are stored alongside one another within a single delivery folder at the data centre. Where a discrepancy arises, a customer service agent is automatically alerted and instructed to investigate the situation and amend the invoice. Other documents, including claims from customers for damaged goods, are also scanned into the relevant delivery folder. Converting the paper chase into an online document flow TokOpen's Workflow is used to manage the transaction and make adjustments on the company's system. This cuts out the need for printed documents, and converts the traditional paper chase into a controlled online document flow. TokOpen highlights relevant deliveries to the appropriate customer service staff managing that customer account. This ensures that when the invoice is issued it is correct, and will not be contested by the customer, resulting in late or non-payment. TokOpen also ensures that all delivery documents are available online across the whole enterprise. If an invoice is contested, authorised members of staff anywhere across the country can retrieve all information about the transaction using a standard Web browser. Additional benefits delivered by the TokOpen system include: ? Improved management and monitoring of hauliers' performance ? Faster response times for customer service enquiries ? More time for customer service staff to be deployed on other duties Tokairo is an international provider of Document Management (TokOpen) and Education systems solutions (TokAM). Tokairo has its headquarters in the UK, with a sister company in the USA responsible for the Americas. http://www.tokairo.com REF=TO1EZ
MORE RESOURCES:
customer service - Google News |
|
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
How To Handle Customer Billing Snafus Q: I just discovered that for the past six months I have been billing a client half of what I should have been. Should I just include the total of the past due balance on his next bill or contact him first to let him know that it's coming? This client has been difficult in the past, so I'd rather not deal with him until I absolutely have to. Learn to Anticipate Your Customers Needs This morning I was having breakfast with my good friend Diane at one of my favorite breakfast nooks. I enjoy the atmosphere there although I've been less than pleased with the customer service so far. Managing Your Business When One Client Takes Alot of Your Time How often has your schedule been thrown out of whack because of a client's needs?I try to live by the 80/20 rule: working from my home office 80% of the time and working onsite with clients 20% of the time. But, the past week has been the exact opposite. Customers - What They Really Want - 6 Secrets of Customer Service What customers really want can be divided into two areas.Firstly - they want the core service of your business to meet their needs. A New Way To Handle Complaints, Or Is It? What a lot of money we have been wasting on dealing with customer complaints.Instead of dealing with them and attempting to satisfy the customer we should create a process that makes complaining so difficult then when customers complain they get such a huge negative experience and never receive any satisfaction. The Added Value - Is YOU! If there was a restaurant in your town that was physically attractive and clean, had a pleasant variety of entrées on the menu, served food that was prepared in an attractive manner, and the service was outstanding--the maitre'd greeted you by name, remembered which was your favorite table, stopped by later to inquire about your needs and satisfaction, the waiters and waitresses bent over backwards to make your dinner a pleasurable experience and always treated you as if you were their most important patron--would you be willing to pay a little more than other restaurants charged?Many of us will pay a more to obtain better treatment. Why? Today, outstanding customer service has become the exception rather than the rule. Marketing as a Spiritual Practice "Marketing as a spiritual practice." It sounds contradictory - how can sales and promotion possibly be considered spiritual? But the secret is, once you truly understand that marketing isn't all about struggle, jargon, tricks or gimmicks, spiritual practice is the very root of success. Poor Customer Service - Are Your Customers Driving Away Other Customers Every customer you have is a word-of-mouth advertiser for you. Unfortunately 90% of this free advertising is negative. Making Customer Satisfaction Surveys Work Why bother? Good customer service is the life blood of any business. Although new customers are important good customer service will help generate customer loyalty and repeat business. Making the Connection: Customer Relationships That Build Your Business Have you ever wondered why you often find a coupon tucked inside your cereal box, or get invited to a customer preview sale at your favorite department store? Those companies know that their existing customers are the best - and most profitable - customers they'll ever have. So it's not surprising that they'll do whatever they can to keep these customers happy and coming back again and again. Creating the Right 'Viral Reputation' Unless you are brand new to business, or have been under a rock for quite some time - one key marketing technique (which isn't new) - is called 'Viral'.Based on the word 'virus' - viral marketing or viral business simply means it 'spreads' like a virus. The Number 1 Rule for Businesses - Be Professional Have you ever walked into a store and things looked sloppy? Stores should have nice neat displays, right? Normally, yes, but sometimes they get a bit messy on busy days and we all understand how that can happen.But what if you were to walk into a store as soon as it opened in the morning and the place looked liked it had been ransacked? What would you think?You'd probably think it wasn't very professional-looking. Transforming Disgruntled Customers into Your Biggest Advocates "I am writing to complain about the widget I bought from your site the other day."Sell anything and eventually you will be on the receiving end of a sentence like this. Accountants / Lawyers Do Yourself a Favor - What do Your Customers Want? In my day to day practice in strategic human resource management I often come across customers looking for a 'good' accountant or 'good lawyer'. As an accountant myself the common thread for a 'good acountant or lawyer' seems to be 'I want someone who can explain things in plain english without the jargon'. The Logic of Emotion! Homebuyers are an interesting study. Watching people make their home buying decisions has brought me to the conclusion that every decision that every one of us makes is based in emotion. Ten Ways to Help You Improve Your Customer Service 1. Stay in contact with customers on a regular basis. Automating Your Help Desk Workflow Do you know you can open, answer, close and report help desk information without human intervention?Automation is a powerful feature provided by most enterprise level help desk products; however, most organizations rarely take advantage of these features. Based on a survey conducted by RightStar Systems, only 5% of the help desk managers interviewed were using automation to its fullest capacity. Loyalty Programs May Keep Customers Coming Back - But First You've Got to Earn their Trust Remember trading stamps? If you're over 40, chances are you will. Every time you shopped at a participating grocery store or gas station they gave you stamps to paste into a book. How Do You Create Customer Loyalty? Another sad fact of life is that these days, very few customers are loyal. Most of their loyalties lie with their bank accounts, and you can't blame people for watching their shrinking dollars. Hit The Jackpot With Customer Complaints Our most powerful instinct is to avoid customer complaints, but they may be the best thing that happens to your business. Here's why.
|
| Article List | Index | Site Map |
|
All logos, trademarks and articles on this site are property and copyright of their respective owner(s).
The comments are property of their posters, all the rest is Copyright © 2006 CanadaSEEK.com - All Rights Reserved. |